The Christmas Journey
by Shenlong7
Summary: Coauthoring with Kuinochi Neko,three years after Kingdom Hearts 2,Sora and his friends go on a road trip to Disney Castle and try to help two nobodies find there somebodies. SorXKai RikXYuf LeoXAer CloXtif featuring Axel and Demxy and no yaoi
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Mail Call

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters of Kingdom Hearts, but hopefully this gets sent to someone working for Kingdom Hearts and they ask me to do story line. I am also doing this with a co-author, Kuinochi Neko.

Harold wasn't a very alert person to his immediate surroundings and had the ability to sleep through a war or a hurricane, he having once slept through the latter. He was a very interesting person who didn't know that much about anything except that he was falling in love with the woman who was running the bar down in Hollow Bastion Square, the very voluptuous Tifa Lockheart. Too bad she was practically taken since she was madly in love with a very shady character with spiky blond hair and carried a massive sword that just said, "One cut and you won't be touching anyone's woman ever again." Cloud Stryfe, the man in black, was like the bandit of Hollow Bastion because he stole the hearts of so many daughters that if he actually took up offers he would have more love children than an athlete. Of course, the guy was too caught up in unfinished business to ever say to the beautiful bar maid that he loved her and that would have made her open, but she was always waiting for that night in shining armor to take over and most of the men who hit on her were sent flying out of the room into whatever was outside. She was beautiful, but she could kick shit out of any man who came towards her without even batting an eye since she was wicked strong and an excellent martial artist. Accompanying her ensemble of tough bouncer/bar workers was the young ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi, Squall Lionhart or Leon as he called himself, the every shy and innocent looking Aerith who had Leon as her personal bodyguard. It was his tendancy to do that that gave him the nick name "Big Brother" and had clued the others into him carrying feelings for her and Yuffie would sometimes tease him for it until Tifa covered her mouth when Aerith walked back in the room.

But all of that has nothing to do with Harold at this point in the time of this tale, what does concern my story is that right at the moment when Harold was getting ready go out and eat a breakfast at the bar, which was cooked by Aerith with the help of Leon, sometimes Cloud if he had decided to stay in Hollow Bastion, but right at this moment there was a heartless attack on Hollow Bastion. Now Harold, not being the most alert man in Hollow Bastion, never noticed that there were heartless attacking his neighborhood or even that some had materialized in his house. When he took a shower, a Soldier heartless spun right at him, but missed him and disappeared into his wall without him noticing. When he got out it reached back in the wall for him, but it's claws barely missed him. As he brushed his teeth he didn't notice that outside of his window was the man whom he considered his rival for Tifa's heart, Cloud Stryfe, cutting down a dozen heartless at once with his buster sword. In reality, he was as much of Cloud's rival as a hobo was the rival of Bill gates, somewhere along the line he had been left in the dust and it was before he had ever laid eyes on her.

Without knowing there was an attack on the city outside, he went out to go to the bar for a nice bite to eat, not paying a second thought to the abandoned streets and cars that were on fire as he walked right past them all and right into the bar. This was when he started to realize something because Tifa wasn't at her usual spot, Yuffie wasn't getting on Leon's nerves for the umpteenth time, Leon was holding back his anger and annoyance while she did this and Aerith wasn't cooking those breakfasts that kept him healthy. He scratched his unkempt short brown hair that he had never combed from bed head and he stroked his chin that was filled with bits of stubble that he never remembered to shave off. Tapping his size eleven foot on the hard wood floor, he hovered over the bar stools which were only a foot shorter than him, he being six foot tall.

"What's going on, something has to be going on if Tifa isn't here," said Harold to himself as he panicked, not knowing what to do if something was actually happening right in front of him.

He had helped out with the fighting of the heartless before, but he was armed then and the defense system had been working then, but it wasn't today because he had accidently spewed coffee on it when he heard that Cloud had given Tifa a light peck on the cheek. It's not like he was the only guy who spewed coffee out when they heard it, especially since the coffee brought serious questioning to what the substance was. The lady who served it, and old hag who looked like something out of a witch trial called it "cwaffee," which made sense since it tasted like liquid ass and made every person who drank it make a break for the bathroom. Now he was all alone and without anyone to come back him up, the worse situation that he could ever be in. Salvaging what little weaponry he could get, he got one of the poles that Aerith used when she was fighting the heartless, except these were the old ones that had been abandoned for stronger fighting instruments that what he had in his hand now.

"Okay so all I need to do is battle my way out of here with this thing," said Harold to himself as he was trying to think of some plan that didn't end with him dying in the mental image. "I guess there is nothing left to do but run back to my house where I have weapons that I can use or find someone who could back me up."

"Do you always talk to yourself," asked a young man or teenager carrying a large key that he had remembered was the trademark weapon of the boy named Sora, who was the best heartless fighter in all the worlds. Right now the boy was no longer a boy of fourteen and now in his place stood a young man or teenager, somewhere from seventeen to maybe nineteen, but it was hard to tell since he had natural boyish looks. "You really shouldn't be here, couldn't you read the sign?"

"I can't read," replied Harold bashfully since it was the worst secret that he had and had caused him to pick things at random from the menu so that people had said that he never ate the same meal twice. The great mystery was really his most embarrassing secret. "Plus it's morning and I'm not fully awake or at least I wasn't fully awake, but after seeing that Tifa isn't here I'm wide awake."

"Oh so you're one of those guys who frequents the bars because of Tifa's and cries himself to sleep at night," said the young man as if the Harold fit the description of some disease that made the victim a pathetic man. "Wow, I hear about you guys from Yuffie and Leon, but I've never met one of you before in real life."

"What the hell man, I'm still a human being," shouted the man as he waved his hands in the air, only to have a Soldier heartless jump over his arms, scratching the tip of his middle finger. "Ah, they're here!"

"So I noticed," said the boy as he spun his keyblade in the air and stepped in the light for Harold to see all the features. The person who stood before him didn't fit the descriptions of Sora that he had heard from so many different people when describing him. The teenager who was in front of him had short hair that was a bit spiky but generally smooth and white or light blue, Harold had always been bad with colors having dropped out of kindergarten. His clothes were different than the ones that Sora had been described as wearing. This teenager had on a white vest over a dark blue zippered shirt with blue pants. "Well then I hope you have a weapon to defend yourself because we have to clean the room out here."

"I got this," said the man as he held up a pole and started to attack the small Shadows that showed up out of the corner of his left eye. He was good fighter when it came down to it and made some good money running a delivery business, but he had no luck with women due to his dropping out of kindergarten.

The young man wielding the legendary weapon struck at everything he saw with such grace that the keyblade seemed to be a part of him, moving like an extension of his arm instead of a weapon. Parrying the attack of the above mentioned Soldier (the one that flew over Harold's hands), the young man spun around to cut through its head and then jumped on top of one Shadow heartless like it were some form of trampoline, the young man brought his sword down on another soldier with the help of gravity. After destroying a few shadows with a quick succession of slashes, the young man summoned multiple thunder spells to destroy the remaining heartless in the room. To keep the bar further intact, the young man ran out of the bar, jumping over one of the big belied heartless and taking out one of the bigger shadows heartless and bringing his blade back to lash at the big heartless. It spun around to parry his slashes with its claws and then slapped its belly to show its intent to charge him since these types of heartless loved to give warning when they were going to charge, almost as if it were a taunt. Harold, seeing an opportunity to help, attacked the heartless at its vulnerable back, but the big creature turned around and started to give chase to the poor man. The keyblade wielder would have taken it out, but there were heartless coming out of the ground all around him and his hands were tied down as Harold could only run from the thing that threatened to make a pancake out of him. As fate would have it, Harold tripped over the shoe lace that he had failed to tie and he fell flat on his face as the thing kept coming, but as soon as it came close to him to do him some harm, a keyblade went right through its back, destroying the heartless before it became lodged into the wall of the building that was only an inch away from Harold.

"You should be more careful when you take on one of those things, mister," said another young man who was probably seventeen or sixteen, but younger than the other young man. This one had spiky brown hair and dressed in a short sleeved black jacket over a dark blue shirt with two red patches on the stomach and black shorts with dark blue in the groin area. His shoes were black and yellow with blue straps. This was the one he had heard so much about, the one named Sora.

"Oh thank you, that thing would have killed me for sure," said Harold as he got up and bowed before the boy. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"It's okay, it's my job to protect people from the heartless and you are no different, even if you are one of those drunks who cry themselves to sleep," said Sora as he helped the man to his feet, but the man fell over with embarrassment at seeming to fit the description of a pathetic alcoholic.

"I don't cry myself to sleep, I just have onion plants out of my window, okay," shouted the man as he backed up defensively.

"Whoa, I was just joking about the whole crying yourself to sleep thing," replied Sora as he scratched his head nervously. "I didn't think you actually did anything of the sort, mister."

"I know that I was just joking," exclaimed the man nervously and defensively, the most unbelievable combination. "It just slipped out! I did it on purpose!"

"Which one is it," asked Sora confused and staring blankly at the man.

"Well that's it for this world," said the young man from before as he dropped down from a rooftop to right next to where Sora stood, running a hand through his pink air as he yawned. "If these heartless things keep up, we might have to get a house on each different world and you could have Kairi come along with us so you don't get lonely."

"What's that supposed to mean, Riku," asked Sora defensively.

"She kissed you on the cheek before we left, don't think I wouldn't notice that you sly dog," teased Riku as he nudged his friend. "Lucky you, she's perfect you."

"Wow, you act as if you are giving up on her," laughed Sora, but then he saw the serious, somewhat sad look on Riku's face.

"I did give up, after I shut the door and went into the darkness," replied Riku as he scratched his head and leaned against the wall of some shop. "Besides, she never looked at me the same way as she looked at you a long time ago and I could sense that there was a barrier forming between us that would make anything other than friend possible."

"Well….I'm sure you'll find a girl perfect for you," said Sora as he patted his friend on the back roughly.

"Hey, easy there, my worst wounds are coming from you, Sora," said Riku as he rubbed his shoulder laughing. "Well I suppose we should wait around for the rest of the gang to come, which I'm guessing Yuffie should be getting here soon if she wasn't distracted by something along the way."

"Um…Riku…she's kinda…right behind you," said Sora as he pointed right past his friend and at the angry ninja who was tapping her feet on the pavement, a thing she only did when she was either angry or bored. She didn't have on her usual outfit, but instead went with full ninja black uniform to stave off the cold weather that was making Sora wish he had gotten black puffy pants.

"Oh, hey Yuffie, I didn't even realize you were there," said Riku, another mistake since she hated it when people treated her like she didn't exist, which is why Leon would give her the silent treatment when she got on his nerves.

"No please, go on and say what you were about to say," said Yuffie as she put her hands on her hips and stared him down, leaving him like a deer trapped in someone's headlights.

"Now come on, I didn't mean it in anyway like that," said RIku as he backed up, but he back up into a wall and found himself cornered by the teenage ninja who was two years older than him.

Before anything bad could happen to Riku, Tifa and Aerith came running in with an envelope that was sealed with the mouse insignia that was used by King Mickey. Leon and Cloud followed the two girls, both carrying their massive swords over their shoulders looking like to horsemen of the apocalypse.

"Hey you guys, we got a letter from the King," cheered Yuffie as soon as she saw the envelope and she rushed to snatch it from Tifa's hand before running back to Sora to hand it to him. "This is for you, lucky boy, I bet it's an invite from the King to some fancy party."

After reading the envelope, Sora turned his head back up and said to them all, "guys, we're going to Disney Castle for Christmas."

* * *

Read and review please. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Getting ready to leave

Disclaimer: Neither I nor Neko own Kingdom Hearts or the characters of Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

It was a scene of chaos in the Seventh Heaven, the bar that Tifa ran in Hollow Bastion, as everyone got ready to leave on the Highwind to go through Disney Castle, but first they would have to pick up some people on the way. In truth, it was Yuffie who was causing most of the chaos running around to pick up the items that she claimed she needed, but she had laid them in places that were either out of the reach of normal men or she forgot where she put them. The only person who agreed to help without some added incentive or threat was Riku, who had kept his clothes and things neatly packed together in case they were needed, unlike Sora, who had everything in disarray. The hyper active ninja, who was only a year older than Riku, but lacked his maturity, bounced off the walls quite literally causing Cloud to have to duck occasionally to avoid her knocking him over. Riku took a different approach by going to places she would most likely be and he set each item that she had required into a nice and neat pile near her suitcase. Leon had chosen to take a duffel bag with a change of clothes instead of a big suitcase while Cloud allowed his stuff to be packed with Tifa's, an act which gave Tifa hope that she could somehow get to him when she needed to. Aerith was helping Tifa pack her own stuff while the temporary manager of the bar, Harold, served the survivors of the attack who came in beers and other drinks.

"So I guess we should swing by and pick up Kairi at the island," said Riku to Sora, but his friend was fast asleep and had to be jolted awake with a thunder bolt before he could get him to talk.

"Don't worry about Kairi, she's already at the castle, they got her two days ago," replied Sora as he let out a large yawn that happened to catch Yuffie's ears.

"Oh no you don't," shouted Yuffie as she ran over to the young keyblade master and stamped her foot. "I'm not letting you be the master of yawning as well! Being the master of the keyblade is more than enough for you!"

"Well why don't you try and top that yawn," said Sora as he yawned in the middle of his sentence, but it was obvious that it was a fake yawn, no matter how lazy they all knew the boy was.

"Watch this," commanded Yuffie as she yawned loudly, much to the chagrin of Leon and Cloud, but Riku found it to be…cute.

"Excuse me, but instead of trying to break the Hollow Bastion book of world records for doing the most pointless things at once, why don't you two finish packing," said Cloud as he leaned against the wall and looked at the two in that calm cool form that made both Yuffie and Sora jealous.

"Oh yeah, your real cool and tough for someone with a stupid chocobo hairdo," retorted Yuffie but she found that Cloud was hardly phased by the comment.

"Come on you guys, start packing, I want to leave tomorrow if possible," begged Tifa before she turned to Harold to finish explaining the do's and don'ts of the bar tending business. "Now you don't have to worry about some drunks coming in and asking for me, they always do that when I go on vacation, but what you should look out for is that damn 'Red Eyes' coming in here to ask for his cut. He's not that tough and all of his backing is supplied by 'Wolf Eyes' who has no interest in giving him man power to use for extortion. Next, make sure that Reno is always accompanied by Rude, because he'll pass out drunk and then you'll have to carry him home or ask one of the guys to carry him home. Yuffie once carried him home and he tried to grope her."

"Since I'm a guy, I don't think I have to worry about it that much," replied Harold confused and with a blank stare plastered over his face. "But I'll make sure that Rude is here to take him out, but shouldn't I also look out for Rude, I mean his name does sound like some form of wild man."

"Oh no, you don't have to worry about Rude, it's Reno that's the trouble," laughed Tifa as she thought of the bald man with dark sunglasses causing havoc anywhere. "Anyway that is all, thank you for taking over the place for me while I'm out."

"No, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to take care of the most precious thing to you," said Harold, tears of joy streaming down his cheek as he held her right hand in both hands. "I will make sure that nothing happens to this place while you are gone."

"Uh…thanks," replied Tifa as she slipped her hand out of his grasp and backed away slowly in uneasiness.

* * *

"Where am I," asked the man with blazing red hair as he got up from the space he occupied on the cold dark marble slab that he was lying on. A second ago he was dying in front of his best friend and his best friend's somebody. "I should be dead right now or at least out of existence from the damage I suffered."

"I was also dead for a second I think," said another man, who was younger than the red head and had blond hair that was fluffed on the top and slicked back into a mullet that made him look like some type of rock star. "Hey, Axel, what are you doing here, is this hell or something?"

"No this isn't Hell, we're nobodies, we don't go to places like that, Demyx," replied Axel as he got up and looked around the dimly lit room with an odd man in white robes who had long brown hair and big yellow eyes that looked like the eyes of a wolf. "And who exactly are you mister mysterious looking man?"

"I'm just some random nomad wandering around to look for the truth of the world," replied the man as he looked at the two nobodies that he had picked up. "My name however…hmm, why don't you call me Adamsk, I rather like that name, wish it were my own. As to how you came to be in my company, it was by the chance that your somebodies haves not been destroyed unlike all the others of your Organization XIII. Instead of dying or simply going out of existence all together, you were drifting around the space of this world which is, I believe, the remnants of that home world that the Organization made. Pieces of it gather, drawn to the remnants of that failed Kingdom Hearts and as such, it has come to be a strange world that for all intense and purposes was made into a world that will suit my purposes for the time being. In the mean time I would like to congratulate you on both being able to have the chance that other nobodies get in this life time."

"What do you mean exactly," asked Demyx as he scratched his head showing that he didn't understand what the strange man was saying, which annoyed his old comrade.

"It means that we have the same chance as Roxas had, idiot," said Axel as he rolled his eyes at the annoyance of his partner. "So how exactly do we do this, I mean do you have a method of moving from world to world?"

"Well all I have is the ability to send you between one world and one world only," said the man who called himself Adamsk as he held up one finger. "The world I'm sending you to is Hollow Bastion, where you should run into an old friend of yours and his somebody. If you travel with them you are sure to find your somebodies along the way and you may find that you may grow wiser for the whole experience. Now, do you wish to go into the unknown of the worlds without the ability to shift between wordls like you had before?"

"We can't move through worlds anymore," asked a shocked Demyx, but Axel figured that Adamsk would have told them where there somebodies were if they had that ability, but obviously they would have to find out on their own. He bet that Adamsk took their ability to shift through worlds away on purpose in order for them to carry out whatever he wished them to do.

"Yes, that was the price you both paid to get out of that abyss that you were in before," said Adamsk as he pointed up above his head at a white light that swirled around like a mist and looking into it gave Axel a sense of dread."That is the area where all that should not exist goes when it is damaged or weakened so much that the object that doesn't exist can no longer resist its pull. For the time, you two do exist through the use of giving you some of what was left of Kingdom Hearts, but that bit of substance is slowly draining away and if you can't find your somebodies at 11:59, you will be unable to resist its pull."

"Grand, more good news, you just know how to lighten someone's spirit," spat Axel as he drenched his words in sarcasm and ran his hand through his long spiky red hair.

"Really, well I can enlighten nobody with my words if they aren't somebody," said Adamsk as he returned the sarcasm with his own snide remarks.

"Now then, to send you back I will need to open a couple of portals so I should use the portals to Hollow Bastion that the heartless are using," said Adamsk as he began to open a portal for the two nobodies who looked at the portal with foreboding.

" You're going to close the portal after us, aren't you," asked Axel as he turned his head slightly to look at the strange man.

"Why ask if you already know the answer," asked Adamsk as he pushed the two into the portal and closed it after them. "I wish the both of you much luck on your journey."

* * *

Sora sighed as he looked at the other portal that more heartless were coming out, the last thing he needed to happen before he set off on his journey to Disney Castle, but it was his job to take care of them because he had the keyblade, the responsibility, and no other way he knew to make a living. Everyone around him was just as sick and tired of seeing those things come out of the sky as he was and when he found out the place where Maleficent or Pete were sending them from, it was going to be on like Donkey Kong. But that was for another time, right now he had to focus on the heartless that were about to come out of the portal and massacre them so badly that Maleficent will stop sending them in fear of ending up like them, but he knew that she was too stubborn and proud to accept defeat.

"Will they just come out already so that Sora can seal the damn portal and we can go," shouted Yuffie, who was feeling like she was about to crash after going on damage control packing.

"You're not helping the matter at all by whining," said Leon as he sat down on a random piece of rubble and hefted his large gunblade on his back. "Heartless may not be the ones coming out, remember there could always be the presence of nobodies as long as the heartless exist."

"Uh…Leon," said Sora as he pointed to the two familiar nobodies coming out of the portal behind a swarm of heartless that they were fighting. "I think you shouldn't mention all the enemies that we have out there."

"Axel wasn't an enemy when you last saw him and the Organization is gone, so they should possess no threat to us," said Cloud while standing at the top of the stairs that led to the Bailey. "From where they landed they seem to be near Ansem's mansion."

"Welp, to Ansem's castle it is!" Sora cried, springing forward into a full-fledged charge. Yuffie hopped up instantly, following behind like a true ninja. Riku and Cloud glanced at each other, then their packs, then in unison at Tiffa and Leon. The two shrugged, rushing off right after Sora and Yuffie with Riku and Cloud bringing up the rear.

* * *

"Woah," Demyx said, lying on the ground next to Axel with heartless all around them. "Where'd all these heartless come from? Shouldn't there be somebody controlling them or something?"

Axel shrugged, staggering up on his feet with slight difficulty. He brushed himself off, earning a complaint from the blonde boy sitting right in range of the dust and rocks. Axel ignored him.

"Reckon that Malificent person and that big cat are- " Axel started. Right as he started his sentence, an entire group of heartless had jumped into the air, claws spread and mouths wide. They landed at perfect timing, digging into Axel's flesh like lions at dinner time. Axel grunted as he threw some off, only to have more jump in their place. He refused to let them force him against the ground, knowing he would be ripped to shreds and overpowered.

"DANCE WATER DANCE!" Demyx's loud cry sounded from beside Axel, even

though he could not see him. In mere seconds, water was flowing everywhere, taking down any unfortunate heartless daring enough to step forward too close. Axel felt slightly dazzled as the freezing water splashed on him and freed him from the heartlesses' grip. His eyes could spot Demyx now, the boy jumping around with his Sitar ringing with multiple vibes at once. As Axel watched, he notice the blonde's movements begin to slow rapidly, a sure sign he was in need of rest right then and there.

Stealithy, Axel dashed forward, drawing his fire stars to his hands ashe ran. Right when Demyx hit the floor, Axel raised his stars and began throwing fire so quickly it was almost invisible. Ashes from the heartless littered the ground with each twirl or spin of a fire star. The heartless, however, were still coming, even though their numbers were dying down. Before long, a throbbing pain hit Axel in the whole of his body, effectively damaging his aim.

"Axel, ... something's happened...We can't use our moves as easily as we used to.." Demyx mumbled, sweat dripping off his forehead. He breathed heavily along with Axel, both men's eyesight somewhat fogged.

"Yeah, this may not be too good..." Axel said, sighing and stepping back, nearly onto Demyx's hand. The heartless began creeping up slowly, one by one with their teeth chattering in anxiety. Axel's body slumoed by itself next to Demyx, both nobodies wielding their weapons before them but unable to

use them.

"Guess this is it then. Get another chance at life and we get murdered by our own henchmen. Ugh, I never should have took this job." Demyx mumbled, lowering his head as the heartless leaped forward. He expected their claws to tear into his flesh at any moment, but it never happened.

A boy hurtled off the nearby wall, swinging a keyblade back and forth through the crowd of heartless like a swordsman. Heartless disappeared one by one, finally getting down to just two. More people showed up and finished them off in no time flat. The boy with the keyblade walked towards the two nobodies, getting a chuckle from Axel when the red head finally saw him coming.

"Long time no see, Sora, Roxas." Axel said, cocking his head so he could see the boy. Sora nodded, grinning while another invisible person seeable with only Axel, Demyx, and Sora at that moment stood beside him. "Hey,Axel." The invisible boy said, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Finally off

Disclaimer: we don't own kingdom Hearts or the characters, but I own a keyblade replica.

* * *

If you put all of the things that could make Leon a bit ticked off and very grumpy in the morning you could make the epic of lists, but luckily they weren't putting together an epic that morning. The thing that was making him grouchy was the fact that he got up early to leave early, but the only two persons out of bed and ready was Cloud and Riku. Sora was still in a coma like sleep which drove Riku mad when he had to wait for him to wake up so he spent the better part of time thinking of ways to make him wake up, one involving acting like Kairi had no clothes on, but if Kairi ever learned about the trick he would be on the lamb. Leon thought to pinch Yuffie's cheeks once but he remembered when he tried doing that and wound up being kicked in the gonads so that solution was out of the question. After letting the others sleep and the two that were awake think, Cloud walked to the symbol that was rung every time breakfast was ready and he started clanging on it real loudly so that everyone was woken up along with their neighbors, their neighbors' neighbors, and in essence the whole block.

"Coming," shouted both Yuffie and Sora as they both raced down the stairs to where the bar was and eventually ran into a poll as they had ran faster than their eyes could open. "Hey watch where you're going!"

"Both of you get ready, we've been waiting for twenty minutes for you two and everyone else to wake up," shouted Leon as he pointed to their rooms.

"What's all the commotion," asked Tifa as she rubbed her eyelids and walked in the room ahead of Aerith.

Tifa and Aerith didn't think to put on a robe or something and so they both came in with silk nightgowns, Tifa's being black while Aerith wore a cute shade of pink, but they both seemed to be the wrong fit as Aerith wore a nightgown that was almost falling off of her and hung real low, enough to show some cleavage, while Tifa's was too tight for her very tight chest that was almost bursting out of the nightgown. Even though Cloud didn't show it much, he had some feelings for the barmaid and at the sight of her in tight clothing he immediately felt a blush coming on and put his hand to his head he pretended to shift the sunglasses back on his face. Without even realizing that they were making their respective interests blush, for Leon was also blushing at the sight of Aerith's cleavage, they started to cook breakfast while the unprepared packed their luggage. Axel and Demxy were out looking for clothes that didn't make them look like shady characters, even though Axel was like the nobody of Reno. They tried seeing if that was true, but Reo had never been turned into a heartless as he was always cautious and could wield his stun baton with great skill and precision.

"I think you should put some clothes on before Axel gets here," said Tifa as she saw what Aerith was wearing, but still hadn't realized what she was wearing at the moment. "I mean that thing is practically falling off of you and Axel seems to be just like Reno so he could be perverted like that."

"What do you mean your clothes are too tight for you, you should go change into something else," said Aerith and then they both looked at each other and then at themselves to see what they had on.

"OH MY GOD," exclaimed the two as they finally realized the condition of their clothing. "WHY DIDN'T YOU PERVES TELL US THAT WE WERE WEARING OUR NIGHTGOWNS?"

"Who's wearing what," asked Reno as he burst into the room for breakfast. He couldn't cook worth a damn and lived off of Aerith's cooking.

"PEVERT," shouted the two women as they ducked down under the counter to hide from the vision of the notorious ladies man who used all the most dangerous weapons known to women to be Hollow Bastion's gigilo.

"Never using that idea again," said Cloud with a sigh as he walked out of the bar and avoid all of the shouting and thrown pans that would be circulating around inside. Leon had taken shelter inside since he knew the warning signs and Riku sensed that something was about to go down, but the two who had been packing knew nothing of the danger in the bar and were caught in the crossfire.

"Ah, watch where your throwing, Tifa," shouted Sora as he dodged the pots and pans being thrown at him.

"The town is in an uproar," cried Yuffie as she ducked under a table to find Riku also taking cover under the table, his composure still calm and cool as things flew over the table. "Do you think we'll be safe here?"

"I don't know, we might have to leave," replied Riku as he looked around for a better spot to hide, but was interrupted by a knife flying into the table and going partially through, a quarter of an inch from his ear. "Okay we need to go right now."

"I agree," said Yuffie running for the other side as fast as she could, but was hit in the head by what seemed to be an instrument for rolling dough. (whatever the hell they're called.)

The sound of Leon's gunblade brought the whole room to silence as the two women quickly realized what they had been doing and then realized that the eggs they had been cooking were burnt. After a quick, half-assed, cleaning of the room (they'd let Harold do the cleaning when they were long gone since he had stayed up late.), the travelling group all sat at the table for breakfast, some more aggressively than others. Axel and Demtrxy had come in during the chaos of the Battle of the Violated, as Tifa called it, but Cloud felt it would be better to call it the Chaos at the Bar. Leon had tried to warn the two not to go in, but, alas, it was too late for poor Demtryx who was hit with a simultaneous attack of a dish pan and skillet. Axel had picked up a whole wardrobe of black clothing with the occasional blue jeans, much like the black shirt and blue jean combination that he had on right now, while his companion had bought rock star sleeveless shirts and skin tight black pants with leopard skin belt. He looked a lot like some rock band from the nineties while his friend looked like a bouncer at the bar, but then again no one could complain about the way they dressed.

"Well, dudes, we are finally going out to see the worlds," shouted Demtryx as he jumped up and held up his glass, which fell on an unsuspecting Yuffie when Axel pulled him down from the table.

"We've been to other worlds before, you idiot," scolded Axel as he began to apologize to everyone for the childish actions of his companion.

"If you apologized to us then we would have to apologize to you for Yuffie and Sora," replied Cloud as he looked at the red haired nobody. "You aren't his father so you shouldn't feel any shame for the way he acts."

"Hey what is that supposed to mean," said Yuffie and Sora both as they jumped up from their seats and glared at the silent swordsmen, although it was like being glared at by a puppy.

"Calm down and eat your breakfast so we can go already," barked Tifa as she slammed her hand down on the table and the two immediately went to eating. Neither person wanted to go toe-to-toe with an angry Tifa, not even if she was sick, especially when she was sick because Cloud would then get in to back Tifa up.

* * *

"All systems appear to be check," said Cid as he looked at the computer and then started to check the other things on the ship that would help the long journey go a lot smoother. Unfortunately, he hadn't fixed or improved the dvd player, which was a bit asinine of him to do because he should have just bought another one. "Come on you piece of crap, start you-."

"Cid, we have impressionable youth down here so keep your voice down," said Leon as he had the kids hand him a wrench so he could put a few loose screws back in.

"I thought you guys already had this done," complained Yuffie as she stamped her feet.

"And I thought you were going to shut the hell up, turns out we're both wrong," barked Cid as he went back to "fixing" the dvd player. (By fixing I mean he was repeatedly hitting it with anything he could get his hand on.)

"Okay everything is done down here so everyone can load on," announced leon before he was pushed down by a very hyperactive Yuffie and was helped up by Aerith. "Thanks, that idiot nearly made me break my ass."

"How rude of you to say about such a lady," retorted Yuffie as she put her head out the doorway.

"Lady," asked Leon in a mocking manner. "Where?"

Before Yuffie could get into an argument, Tifa grabbed both of them and shoved them into the gummi ship and made sure to keep them separated by securing both to their seats before taking her seat next to Cloud. Axel and Demtryx sat in the seats behind Sora, Riku, and a thrashing Yuffie. Yuffie had a slight discomfort of travelling by ship and would experience air sickness or whatever sickness she had, she just got queasy every time she got on a ship that flew.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road," said Cid as he started the gummi ship's engines up and then sent it up into the sky as it plunged through the atmosphere. "Okay so what is the first world on our list of places to visit?"

"Well, I also got a list of people that are also coming so...why don't we pick them up as well?" Sora said. He fumbled in his pants pocket until a small paper scroll was gripping in his hand.

"Oh my God, we don't have forever to find our somebodies, y'know." Axel snorted behind Sora, Demyx peeking out the window excitedly.

"Dude, look at the stars. All these constellations.." Demyx muttered, awestruck. Axel sighed, slapping his hand to his face at the total lack of attention.

"Well, we agreed to help you find your somebodies for saving me and my friends. We don't go back on our word but we just have a few things to do. Don't worry. I promise we'll find them." Sora replied, apparently having had heard Axel but didn't respond as quickly.

"This is gonna be a long week." Axel muttered, knocking his forehead against the clear glass window on his side.


	4. Chapter 4

Next Chapter: The Land of the Dragons!!

Disclaimer: We (Shenlong and I) do not own ...Kingdom Hearts...nor

Disney.

* * *

"Okeydoke, Sora. Where's the first stop on our list?" Cid asked from the control panel. His bulky hands gripped the steering wheel with precise tightness so as not to wear out his hands from too much pressure and not to lose control from not enough griphold.

Beside the groaning Yuffie, Sora nodded his head, causing all his hair to wave like mad. "'Mulan and Mushu, Land of the Dragons. '" Sora read aloud. "Alright!" He added with a grin.

"To The Land of the Dragons then! Hi-HOO!!" Cid cried, taking one hand off the panel to pump it in the air. The gummy ship reacted instantly, sending the whole thing in a complete twirl. All the passengers yelled out in shock and slight fear as their bodies jerked for the ceiling. "Ah, whoops!

Sorry 'bout that folks!"

"Dear God...Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?!" Axel yelled from the back. He was gripping the sides of his chair while he spoke, a bit unnerved. Demyx cheered, earning a death glare from Axel.

"Of course I do, lady! An' see here, I have two little chipmunks helping me out. Ain't that right boys?" Cid reached over, popping open the dashboard with one finger. Inside was a little room with shiny gadgets and doohickies littered everywhere, but no little tree dwellers with big teeth and cute little markings on their backs.

Everyone froze, watching the pilot in dead silence. Glances were exchanged between them every few seconds. Only one question interrupted their previous thoughts of Christmas, boys, swords, nobodies, and/or whether or not the stove was left on.

"...So...where are the chipmunks?" Demyx finally spoke, relieving everyone else from asking it.

* * *

At Disney Castle

Despite the fact it was about 32 degrees outside and the sun was most definitely not out, two little critters lay in little donuts (literally) on a pool's surface, drinks and sunglasses at hand and eyes. They were relaxing without a second thought to the weather. Hibernating plants and scary lawn ornaments surrounded them lifelessly, save for the plants. The wall encircling the pool area were plain white but well kept, sometimes a difficult task for enchanted brooms.

"Hey Dale?" One of the critters asked, sitting up and almost tipping his miniature drink into the pool.

"Yes, Chip?" Dale replied, sipping from his drink. Due to the fact he was lying on his back, he choked momentarily, but recovered easily.

"Do you think they know we aren't in the gummy ship?" Chip asked in a speedy, woodland creature tone.

"Oh, I sure hope so. But they probably do so don't go acorns over it."

"But what if they don't? What if they try to fly the gummy ship by themselves?!" A pause fell upon them, then a bunch of chipmunk-laughter filled the enclosed walls.

"Them flying the gummy ship themselves!! Ha! I bet none of them can get it going! None the less fly it!" Dale laughed, dropping his drink in the water and gripping his stomach from laughing too hard.

"Yeah! Cid might do it but to control it through turbulence and such is way out of his league! Sora needed our help to get through so there's no way those two together could get out without hitting something!!"

"Really?! Flying the ship!! Hahahaha!!...Whew, that was a good laugh...anyway, they're obviously gonna wisk here with everybody by Donald's magic! Don't tell me the termites have gotten to your head!"

"Yeah, that's right! I feel better now." Chip sighed, lying back on his donut, pinching a chunk off of it and gulping it down eagerly. The door to the room opened and closed, but the chipmunks didn't pay any attention. What would they care? Their only threats were all the way over on another part of the world.

"Hey guys. Whatcha doin?" A familair voice came from behind, somewhat harder to understand than the speed-talking chipmunks since the speaker had a bill. Chip and Dale froze, the plop of Chip's drink into the water being the noise they needed to swerve around in their donuts and gawk at the duck kneeling by the pool.

"Donald?!?!" They said in unison. Turning to each other, they already

Knew what was on the other's mind. "Uh-oh.."

* * *

On the Gummy Ship

"Oh my god we're gonna die," shouted Sora as the gummi ship spun around out of control with no one to guide it, like a comet shooting through with people on it ready to crash on an unsuspecting world. "First I'm gonna throw up and then I'm gonna die."

"Calm down for a second and let me think," shouted Leon as ideas raced through his mind on how to save them, but the right one seemed to allude him for some unknown reason that he couldn't think of right now because he was trying to think of a way to fix his problem. Needless to say, his head was a mess, but luckily Cloud was able to think of the solution of just hitting the auto-pilot button that would give them time until Cloud got into the pilot's seat and landed on the Land of the Dragons.

"Well…Mulan, what I'm trying to say is that…well I was hoping that maybe you would like to be my wife," said Shang as he sat with Mulan in the Imperial Garden that arranged with flowers from all over the four corners of China. He was an average size man, but he also had very militaristic air to him that showed he was a general besides the armor and officers cape that he wore. The woman he was talking to had great beauty that was quite rare, even though the other maybe more beautiful women, they all lacked some rare quality that she had, probably because she was different, a rose in a field of daisies. That's what made him tense when he was talking to her right now at this moment.

"Very well," said the smiling beauty as she took a sip of her tea and smiled at the military officer that sat next to her. "I accept your marriage proposal with great reluctance, but I feel it is my duty to have a happy life with you due to my loyalty to my heart."

"I'm glad your heart your heart seems to think in my favor," laughed Shang as he took her hand and stared into her eyes, which held such tenderness and affection that it would move anyone with a heart. Just as they were about to kiss, a familiar ship flew over the palace and landed far off into the mountains where they defeated the vast armies of Shan Yu. "Was that just what I think it was?"

"Yes, I'm sure that was Sora Donald and Goofy, I'd remember that ship anywhere," said Mulan as she started to run for the gate and turned to wave for Shang to follow her. "Come on we have to meet up with them so they get a good welcoming party."

"Sir we have reports of enemy troops in the area of the mountain," said a messenger as he ran to inform Shang of the new development.

"We have to hurry then," said Mulan as she ran to help them.

* * *

Sora didn't know where he was when he woke up, just that his head hurt, a lot. And he noticed that someone was on top of him and that someone was on top the person who was on top of him, but luckily stopped it there because he could barely breathe. The two people who were on top of him were none other than Yuffie and his best friend, Riku, Riku being on top of him with his face up and Yuffie being on top of Riku with her face down. In other words they were pressing their lips against each other and getting very red about it, so much that it looked like they were severely sunburned. Normally, Sora would have been happy for his friend Riku, but he had to break their happy moment as it were so he could get some air.

"I know there are hormones, testosterone and a whole bunch of other things that can't be repressed," said Sora calmly as he closed his eyes, but then he said in a very loud voice, "But could you both GET THE HELL OFF OF ME?!"

"Sorry, Mr. Grumpy," said Yuffie as she climbed off of Riku somewhat reluctant to do so because something about it just felt so right. _And just when I was getting something good._ "You know, I'll think I'll do the same when I see you and Kairi kissing, just to get even with you."

"Right now what we have to worry about are the heartless," said Leon as got his gunblade out. "This is going to be a hard fight, but I guess this is our lot."

Behind the three on the ground, there was the sound of heartless.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five: Here is me at the Great Wall of China

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that Square-Enix or Disney own.

* * *

"A very strange occurrence, but I think I've seen those two before," mused Shan Yu as he looked down at the crash of the strange vessel that seemed to hold people in it. "It's like a rocket, but it seems to be able to hold people in it. And I could swear I've set eyes on that boy before, but all the others seem unfamiliar to me. What do you make of it, Legat?"

"That boy would be the one named Sora," replied a man with cold grey eyes and long white hair that was combed into a mullet. He had a very quiet voice that was, at the same time, very deep and powerful, enough to make his presence a thing of ill omen. "I guess you cannot remember him because he has not his two friends about him, Donald and goofy. They were the three who helped Mulan to defeat you and prevent your conquering of the Emperor."

"It is very fortunate that they are here then, especially when I have so many heartless at my beck and call," said Shan Yu with a grin as he stepped forward and held his sword up.

"That may be a bit too hasty an action my friend," said Legat as he put his hand on Shan Yu's arm and signaled for him to put it down. "The army has seen your army and the others are certain to come here to give battle so sending your army out would divide it and give them a wedge to set their armies in. On the other hand, if you wait, you can run over the Imperial army and get your revenge on all your enemies in one felled swoop."

"What a marvelous idea," exclaimed Shan Yu as he trudged through the snow, his large black boots making a sound similar to eating and apple as he moved to get a better look at the boy who was helping his friends out of the wreck of the ship. "But I think I should send some light troops just to welcome them and keep them in one place."

"Yes, it would be terrible to ask them to wait without someone to entertain them," said Legat as he peered over the ridge before walking towards a portal that he had just created. "I'll watch from afar and provide assistance if you need it."

"Perfect, Legat," replied Shany Yu as he turned his hawk eyes onto his ally.

* * *

It always seemed to happen when they woke up, or it seemed that way to Yuffie as she jumped up from the snow and took her large shuriken in her hand, letting it spin around in her hand. As soon as one of the soldier heartless jumped at her, she let it fly, the blades of death cutting through every heartless that got in its path, like some wind of death. There was something with the way she looked as she threw the shuriken that made Riku look at her so differently than he had before. For the split second that he saw her, he thought, _she looks like a goddess when she throws that thing with grace. Why is that I never noticed it but for now?_ It was in that split second that something inside of him started to accelerate and it wouldn't let him go until he went back to worrying about the other heartless that were quickly surrounding him. With leap, he sliced a blizzard heartless in half to create the opening he needed to escape through and then he could take one after the other. He closed the distance between him and horseback heartless by using a dash thrust that he had developed after looking at the way Cloud did his omni-slash. What it did was use a bit of magic to push Riku forward since he had neither the training nor the time that Cloud had to come up with his move, and he would push his own feet in a thrust while having his keyblade target one of the heartless. The result was a hand move that had saved his life a few times and the life of Sora who tried to do Cloud's omni-slash with a bit of success, but still nothing like what RIku could do.

After the horseback was down, Riku rushed a group of soldier heartless and was surprised when he saw another horseback heartless fly in and knock him back into the belly of one of the heartless that he called "Al Rocker" heartless. He knew he was only two seconds away from being hit with a large fist, but before it could hit him, the heartless was destroyed by Sora, who stuck his keyblade into its back and used it as a catalyst to jump over the fat heartless and called his keyblade back. He turned around and grinned at Riku while giving a peace sign.

"Beat that move, Riku," said Sora like a little kid before he felt a burst of fire shoot past his head and hit the horseback heartless that was about to hit him.

"Does that satisfy the competition or do you need more," asked Riku as he walked on with his keyblade out and pointing at another soldier heartless, but before he could even rush to attack it, the heartless was cut in half with jian that was held by none other than the raven haired beauty that Sora had met on his journey before.

"Hello Sora, it's good to see that you can still hold your own," said Mulan as she got off the back of her horse to hug her old friend.

"What will the captain say were he to see us like this," laughed Sora as he hugged back and then heard the sound of another horse trotting in the snow. When he heard this sound, he turned to give a salute to his onetime captain. "Captain Shang, it's good to see you, sir!"

"Yes it is good to see you again, Sora, but you need not bow to me after what you did," said Shang as he held out his hand for Sora to shake. "And it's General now, actually."

"Roger," said Sora as he snapped another salute before the three burst out into laughter, much to the curiosity of the others around them. "Anyway, we came here to take you along with us to Disney Castle for Christmas, along with a few other friends. Let me introduce you to all my friends, since I know you've already seen Riku because he's been here before when he helped me out with the problem with the heartless that came here. The one in black with blonde hair is Cloud and the woman in black with long black hair is Tifa. The crazy ninja who has ADD is Yuffie, but watch out because she could be a handful if you're not careful. Then we have the other guy with the blue coat, Leon, and then the cutey in pink, Aerith. Then we have the old ship builder, Cid, along with two other guys I brought along, the mullet guy, Demyx, and Axel, the red headed guy."

"Who did you say has ADD, you baka," asked Yuffie as she started to pull his cheeks out, which he did in turn.

"I'm saying you have ADD," replied Sora and eventually the two had to be pulled apart from each other before they permanently stretched each other's lips out.

"Would you two stop acting like children, we have a job to do," said Leon as he walked to get the gummi ship fixed, but was having just as much luck as Cid, which was basically snake eyes. "Great, it looks like we might be stuck here unless we find someone who can hand us the part needed and fly this thing at the same time."

"I believe you have more pressing matters at hand," said a very scary voice behind them which belonged to the infamous leader of the Hun army, Shan Yu, with falcon on shoulder. "What a perfect day, I get to crush the army and get my revenge on those who took away my victory those years ago."

"I don't know who Mr. Scary is but he looks like trouble," said Yuffie as she shifted into a fighting stance and prepared for combat.

* * *

Oddly enough, on a hill not that far from the two opposing armies was the mysterious Legat with two hired mercenaries who were hired for their skills with explosives and other things, but mainly because they were cheap. One had short blonde hair that was a bit curly and had the texture of cotton and with him was his apprentice who was learning from him, even though she would often have some accidents. Their names were Ban, short for Bandit, and Neko, which was Japanese for cat, a reference to her love for cats. Right now Neko was the one targeting the Imperial army with a rocket.

"Are you sure you she should be the one doing that," asked Legat as he watched the girl set the rocket into the ground at an angle. "I mean, it would be better if you were to get it."

"She has to learn these things and this is not even part of our contract, just something extra," replied Ban coolly as he cleaned his sunglasses and put them back on. "Anyway, you have nothing to worry about, she is a natural."

The rocket fired off and instead of hitting the Imperial army, it hit a mountain formation, which caused snow to slide down the hill and lay waste to the armies of Shan Yu.

"A natural idiot," shouted Legat as he stormed off, not noticing the thumbs up that Ban gave his apprentice.

* * *

"What are still doing here, Shan yu? You're plans to conquer this empire will never work!" Sora cried in fury at the man standing not too far from them. Two sets of bird eyes crept upon him with a sense of wicked intentions, enough to send a tiny chill down the boy's back. His brother-like friend stood beside him, ready to fight at any given moment.

"DANCE WATER DANCE!!"

"Chakram!"

The double calls of the former Organization XII members broke through Sora's thoughts, drawing his attention and Riku's to the fullest. Surrounding their friends were numerous heartless, too many to count, all of which were leaping like frogs at each person individually. Water and fire swirled and broke through many, but the more elements shot, the more heartless would attack the users when they were unable to resist.

"Yuffie!!" Riku cried out when he saw the girl slashed deeply in the shoulder by a heartless. He snarled and ran forward, only to get knocked back by an invisible force field of some sort. The boy landed hard on his side, but thankfully he landed on snow.

"Riku!" Sora called out, only to have his name yelled as a sword missed his head by mere inches. In seconds, forced to ignore the cries of his fellow teammates in vain, Sora leaped to the side with his keyblade armed. The sword of Shan Yu and the legendary keyblade clashed with loud pangs and clanks.

"Sora! Get out of the way!" Riku suddenly yelled, rushing over just as the sword of Shan yu was about to strike Sora full on and yanked him out of the dagger's path. Rikue dragged Sora all the way to the other side of the force field, where heartless of all kinds were escaping like mad. Shan yu paid no attention, his eyes frozen on Riku and Sora only. From nowhere, Cloud reached forward to where Riku was leaning against the invisible wall, gripping his shoulder tightly and pulling him in.

"What's going on?!?!" Sora yelled out, getting hauled along with Riku and stuffed in the middle of the group. A roar silenced him, the next moment snow flying down from the top of the mountain like water. Shan yu looked up at exactly the wrong moment, his body getting once again buried in the snow while the force field protected the members of the gummy ship.

It had been a rough time getting through all the snow, but after an enraged Axel got his face stepped on for the first and last time, he made sure everyone got the clear message with the help of his trusty chakrams. Shan Yu was nowhere in sight when the snow was cleared away, bringing curiosity and fear in everyone there.

"Where..." Captain Shang began, looking around the wintery wonderland in awe. He was soon answered by a small hand popping out of the snow, followed by more hands and then the bodies of the heroes themselves, all until they were all free. "But what happened to Shan Yu?"

That question was also answered as soon as it was spoken as a hand popped out of the snow, a black gloved hand followed by another similar hand with a sword in it and they were followed by the Hun leader, who stood menacingly over the group with a glare. As he raised his sword, however, Demyx used his water to surround him while Sora cast a blizzard spell to render the terror known as Shan Yu into nothing more than an ice sculpture on a lawn.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Pridelands!!Disclaimer: Shenlong7 and Kunoichi-Neko DO NOT own Naru- er, Kingdom Hearts or anything relating to it such as Walt Disney himself. May he rest in peace. But we own our OCs, or at least I think that's legal. . U

* * *

"Well, that's taken care of." Leon declared, arms crossed across his muscular chest. Sora nodded, hoisting the keyblade over his shoulder. 

"Woah, ... that's gotta hurt.." Demyx muttered. He walked until he stood directly beside the ice sculpture, running a finger down the side curiously. "All that water combined with the wind ability to freeze it...this might be permanent considering the climate and the chances of someone being able to haul such a huge thing..."

Axel and Sora stared at the rockstar nobody, casting a glance at each other then back again. "Is this really.." they thought surprisingly at the same time. Demyx noticed them staring, cocked his head then looked behind him.

"What're you guys looking at?" He asked, searching around in curiosity.

"Yep.." Sora's and Axel's voices came in unison.

"Guess the empire will finally be in peace then..." General Shang said as he looked over the mountains at the empire. What a quiet sight it was, just lying right smack in the middle of nowhere with the nearest town being miles away. It was no wonder they had the army they did.

"Yeah, but we won't if we don't get going. We have to meet Mickey before Chrsitmas Eve to drop everyone off then go find Axel and Demyx's real bodies before Christmas day or they'll never be restored." Sora lowered his eyes to the ground, a bit saddened at the results of failure on the important mission for the nobodies. Axel remained silent, watching the young boy all the while listening to Riku and Yuffie whisper to each other behind him. The two stopped seconds later, turning their eyes to Sora as well.

"Hmpf, don't get so emotional about it. It's no big deal. We just find our bodies, become human again then you can have your little Christmas thing." Axel replied, waving his hand with his words.

"But you saved me and my friends from those heartless, remember? I have to pay you back somehow!" Sora replied, outstretching his hands and nearly hitting Cloud. "When we get everyone to Disney Castle, I PROMISE I'll find your somebodies, even if they're all the way over in Twightlight Town! Or even Halloween Town! Then you guys will celebrate Christmas with us!"

Axel chuckled. "Do what you want, kid.." He muttered, turning away to hide the tiny smile on his face.

"Hey! Sora! Leon! I've got the gummy ship a going!!" Cid yelled, breaking the silence that was starting to befall. Everybody turned to watch the man stumble out of the ship, waving a wrench in his hand. "Guess we don' need to go straight to Disney Castle! We can jus' head on and pick everyone up!"

"Alright!" cheered Sora, thrusting his hand and keyblade in the air, "Let's go! To...-" Sora pulled the list from his pocket, going down the list with his fist still in the air, "- To The Pridelands!!"

* * *

"The Pridelands, eh? Coolio..." Neko muttered to her teacher, kicking her feet over the side of the hill-cliff. Ban sat quietly as he watched the people below them cluster around then disappear into the gummy ship partially dug into the snow. The two had been listening to the group's conversation, a couple of times looking back to make sure Legat hadn't caught up yet. Apparently the Mud Bomb was keeping him occupied, and maybe causing a bit of confusion as to where the mud came from. 

"Jeez, I'm hungry..." The girl groaned, dragging the bag off her back wearily. She dug through it, ignoring the grunt from Ban for a reply. She pulled out an orange carrot, thoroughly checking it over for the most dangerous three letters put together. TNT was nowhere on it. "Hey, Ban," Neko said, biting the end of the carrot. Ban glanced at her, his sunglasses sliding down his nose an inch. "What's up, Doc?" Neko said jokingly, copying the famous rabbit and his pose.

"What are..-Hey! Get rid of that!!" Ban suddenly cried, sitting up straight.

Neko took the carrot out her mouth, munching on a tiny bit she had chewed off. "Why?" She asked, about to take another bite before Ban snatched it."Hey! I was eating that!" The carrot flew in the air, performing a complete arch before plummeting into some snow on another hill-cliff-thingy. A blast followed it by mere seconds, sending snow shooting everywhere. No evidence was left when the minute-lasting smoke dispersed.

"Any more objections?" Ban asked, looking back at the wide-eyed girl. She gulped, crying out with her mouth closed suddenly. She slapped her hands over her mouth and ran to the other side of the hill-cliff, spitting out as much of the bomb carrot as possible. Ban shook his head, taking a carrot with TNT written on it from his bag.

"Did you forget we labeled the carrots TNT and the bombs we labled nothing?" Ban asked, munching on the carrot in his hand. Neko looked up from the hill side, wiping her mouth on her sleeve irritably.

"'We'?! 'We' didn't label those! Or at least I didn't! And you didn't tell me about the TNT carrot thingamabob!!" Neko cried, jogging back to the other side.

Ban rubbed his chin in thought. "Oh...that's right..I forgot who it was but anyway, did you spit it all out?"

"No! I freakin swallowed some of it!!" Neko replied, starting to squeak. Ban sighed, pulling a cap from his bag. He placed it on his head, then took it off and bowed his head. "Knock it off! That's not funny! What do I do?!?!" Neko cried, grabbing at the hat. It twirled away on Ban's hand, the man studying it while remembering what the person who made them told them to do at times like this.

"Well, it's water activated, so stop talking unless you want the moisture to get in. Two, don't eat or drink anything. And three, you got to wait for the stomach acid to completely destroy it. I'd give it about 2 hours at tops. "

"D-don't eat anything?" Neko whimpered, his stomach growling in unison.

"You're talking."

"Ack! Sorry!"

"Still talking.."

"RRgrry!"

"What?"

"You just said don't talk!"

"Then don't talk!"

"Okay!"

"Neko!"

"Ban!!"

"Stop talking!"

"ARGH!!!"

"..."

"..."

"That's better..."

"Thank you.."

Ban slapped his hand to his face, shaking his head while Neko returned to rumaging in the bag.

* * *

The gummy ship whirred to a start, spitting out snow and shaking everyone inside. It backed out with a sickening jerk, Yuffie proving how sickening it was by grabbing a barf bag from the container on the roof put especially above her chair. It was soaring through the deep blue sky and over lands in moments. Cloud sat close to Cid, Leon as well as both men kept an eye on his driving. 

"Almos' there!" Cid yelled from the driver seat. Demyx looked up in confusion, peeking out the window then searching around the faces for an answer.

"This Gummy Ship was built for speed." Sora explained. "It travels to worlds almost twice as fast as a regular gummy ship."

"That's right, m'boy!" Cid pushed a few buttons up front, glancing back at Demyx and Sora with a nod. "An' she's durable through almos' anything! A beauty she is.." The gummy started leaning, a result of Cid going on coffee break and taking one hand off the wheel. Leon reached the wheel first, steadying it until Cid finally put his coffee down.Grasslands and prairies started playing past the windows, drawing everyone's attention to the various animals roaming about. Buffalo galloped along side the gummy ship when it started to hover by the ground. Birds dive-bombed insects and sometimes larger animals like the buffalo. Every now and then a prairie dog would pop out of its hole, ducking back into the ground when anything approached.

"We are going on a safari See the lions from my ferrari Hope we don't catch the malari It's safari time!" Demyx started singing from the back. Axel sighed and rolled his eyes, placing his head in his hand wearily. " Many nice surprises, are waiting in the jungle Girlie, oh, girlie, We going on a safari " Demyx continued to sing, driving Axel farther and farther away from his patience line."I will show you the goats, the chickens, and the monkeys So if you don't to go, I will go there anyway."

"Demyx! Shut up!" Axel finally shouted, slamming his hand down on the arm rest. Demyx stared in shock, and then grinned in amusement. Sora looked back at the two nobodies, waved his hand to get Demyx's attention, then signaled to everyone else. The gummy ship was silent for a few minutes, long enough to give Axel some peace..

"WE ARE GOING ON A SAFARI SEE THE LIONS FROM MY FERRARIHOPE WE DON'T GET THE MALARI! IT'S SAFARI TIME!!" Everyone yelled at the same time, scaring the crap out of both Axel and poor Cid who were both unaware of the planned outburst. The gummy ship swerved as a result, but not bad enough for the care of Leon and Cloud.

"Alrigh', safari lovers,...we're here!" Cid called out, pulling the gummy ship to a stop in front of a huge rock.

"Come on already! We don't have all eternity you know!" Legat hollered at the two people he had hired to help him.

They lagged behind tiredly, pretending to have used up more of their magic when they truthfully had way more left. However, the intense heat of the savanna did take a toll on them, red marks spreading across their faces from sunburn. The funny thing was, the farther they got up the mountainous hill Legat lead them on, the darker and spookier it got. Legat only stopped when they reached the edge of the hill. Ban took a quick glance down the side, observing with interest the acid green gunk flowing around and exploding from the earth.

"You! Doofy! Get over here." Legat ordered, pointing at Neko peeking over the side at what Ban was looking at. She glared, striding up beside the man. A dry erase board hung around her neck, her way of communicating since she could not otherwise. She watched curiously as the man started digging in the dirt with a piece of thick charcoal, creating a semi-deep, ashy circle. He tossed the charcoal down the cliff, ignoring the green smoke that followed up afterwards.

Neko scribbled "Any idea what he's doing??" on the board and held it up for Ban to see. He shrugged.

"Doofy, hold out your hand." Legat grunted. He held a glass shard in his hand tight enough it almost cut him. It was in position to cut. Neko did not approach. Instead, she erased her previous message with the back of her hand. Gripping the marker tightly with her right hand, she scribbled her name in the blue ink across the board then turned it for Legat to see.

"What is this? ...Wacko, give me your hand!" Legat growled, taking one look at the board. Neko slapped her head, tapping the board until Legat looked again.

"Yako, whatever. Give me your damned hand!" Legat grabbed at her, but she dodged and tapped her finger harder against the board. Legat snarled, reaching up and gripping her wrist and yanking her down. She slipped, the glass shard aimed at her hand slicing down her cheek instead. Neko crawled away swiftly, dabbing her scratched cheek. Legat glared at her.

"Grow up already." Legat grumbled. He buried the bloody shard in the dirt. In a matter of minutes, the circle began to glow an eerie green. The dirt began to grow, claws suddenly breaking through the dirt. Neko screamed, dashing off and hiding behind Ban. Slowly, a dark lion pulled himself up, decaying skin dangling from the lion's skeleton. The zombie animal had a very noticable scar over one of his eyes.

"Ah, yes, let's see those brats defeat you!!" cackled Legat, going into a round of maniac laughter.

* * *

The lion roared, its deep voice echoing around combined with the cries of various hyenas. Atop a large priderock, curled up in the middle of many lioness a large lion awoke from its slumber, lifting its head tiredly. Its beautiful mane flowed in the light drafts that came from the circular opening of the den. 

"Simba?" inquired a slim lioness relaxing beside him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Simba answered with a worried expression. "But I thought I heard Scar a second ago."

"Scar? Simba, Scar is dead." The lionless stood and stretched, nuzzling her muzzle in Simba's mane. "You were just imagining things."

"Maybe..." Simba muttered, getting on his large paws. He stepped out of the den quietly, admiring the view of the savanna with the lionless by his side.

"Simba!!" Came a boy's cry. Simba remembered the voice as though he met its owner just yesterday.

"Sora!" Simba cried back, looking around. The wild-haired boy was nowhere in sight.

"Up here!!" Sora yelled. Looking up, Simba spotted the boy on a large, jagged rock. He grinned down at the mighty lion, hands on his knees and the elbow of another boy with white hair resting on his shoulder.

"Simba, time to come to the Christmas party at Disney Castle!" Sora called down happily.

"What?" Simba's jaw dropped in confusion, his mind trying to comprehend what the boy meant."You're invited. Many are. But we must get moving though." The white-haired boy added.Simba stared, thinking over the invitation. "How long will it be?" He asked.

"Just the night of the day we get there then we'll take everyone back." Sora replied, tapping his palm to keep the order right."Alright, guess it wouldn't hurt.."

"'Wouldn't hurt'?! Come on Simba, this is a party!!" Timone said from out of nowhere, getting startled yet amused glances from everyone. The prairie dog stood on the back of his faithful friend, Puma, near the rocks leading down from the Priderock.

"Come on! Let's get this party started!!" Timone cried, holding on to Puma as they started to run down the rock path.

Laughing, Sora leaped from the rock he was on, landing lightly on his feet."Riku! I'll race you!" Sora yelled out at the white-haired one. Riku smiled, stepping off the rock and landing beside Sora.

"Challenge accepted. Begin." Riku said before he took off, Sora coming up fast.

"Good grief.." Simba muttered, licking the lioness's head then bounding behind the four.

* * *

"Alright, now listen up." Legat growled, walking up to Ban and Neko to where they stood far from the edge near a herd of grazing buffalo. Ban leaned against one, Neko petting one's head, but both stood up straight when Legat began to approach. The buffalo, sensing a rather odd presence, strided away."See these buffalo?" Legat muttered, pointing at the herd. 

"Where you expecting us not to?" Ban asked, lossening his shoulders.

Legat ignored him bitterly."Scar is over in that valley. It has two paths; a left path and a straight path. Herd these beasts down the straight path, not the left. If my calculations are correct, the buffalo will scare those brats over into the left path, and Scar will take care of them from there. Got it?" Legat demanded, glaring.

Neko scribbled a "yes" on her board, but Legat just snorted. He turned away, walking down the path they came up.

"I'm going to rejoin my spa. Don't bother me." He disappeared around a corner.

"You heard the man. Let's take 'em down the left path." Ban said, pulling a gun from his belt and loading it. Neko nodded, ducking down and covering her ears as the bullet from Ban's gun rang out and hit a cliff, effectively startling the buffalo into a stampede for the path they were bound for.

"Did you just hear something?" Sora asked, opening the door to the gummy ship. The race had ended in a tie, the rocky stairs being to hard to keep balance on. Simba growled.

"Yeah, it sounded like a gun." Riku answered. The trio watched the valley in front of them, listening to the numerous thuds thundering further down.

"Sounds like.." Simba began but gasped, having seen the buffalo galloping towards them at top speed the moment they sharply cut the corner of the rock.

"Rampage!!!" Sora cried. Riku grunted, ushering Simba into the gummy ship, then grabbing Sora and pulling both of them into the ship. The flight members, the ones that weren't asleep, looked up when the door slammed shut, confused at the frantic movements of the boys and lion."

Cid! CID!! Wake up!! Rampage!!" Sora yelled, shaking the man roughly. Cid woke up dazzled, hearing the sentence repeated once and only once to get him to start up the ship as fast as a mad man.

"It won't start!!" Cid cried, repeatedly pushing the start button. By then, the whole group was awake, the galloping buffalos growing louder by the second.

"Don't get out! We'll be safer in here! This ship is extremely tough!" Leon ordered, peering out the window.The group gathered around separate windows, watching the buffalos with unease. Closer and closer and closer and closer and then...

"What?!?" Yuffie cried, stunned. The buffalos suddenly turned, unbestknown to them by the ping of another bullet being shot. At that moment, the gummy ship started up finally, rocking everyone aboard and knocking them onto the floor. The gummy ship shot up in the air, Cid being too startled to have seen the buffalos turn. Ban walked up to the edge of the rock, watching the gummy ship fly off into the clouds.

* * *

"Well, that was fun." He grumbled, putting away his gun rather slowly.Neko nodded, scribbling random things on her board. She jumped at the sound of the gun going off again, staring at Ban in shock. 

"What?" Ban asked, shrugging with the gun pointed at the ground. Neko shook her head, ignoring the target practice Ban was having for the rest of this damned chapter or until."Well we should be going, but we do have to wait for the others to go."

"Why would we wait for that," wrote Neko as she looked at her mentor.

"We're parked behind them so our ship wouldn't get damaged," replied Ban, but he couldn't help but notice that Neko was looking mortified. "You did park the ship on the straight path right?"

* * *

This chapter is compliments of my esteemed colleague Kuinochi Neko. Check out her work if you like the style. 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Deep Cover

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters of said video game.

* * *

"Does anyone know what just happened back there because I'm a bit confused," asked Sora as he looked around the gummi ship cockpit only to see that most of them were as confused as he was, but the less excitable members of the crew were all thinking in a corner, which almost looked like a meeting of mercenaries. "Will the 'uses few words group' please come over here and tell us what you guys are thinking of right now." Sora announced, waving a hand. The muttering stopped, all members of the small group turning their attention to Sora.

"What we were thinking was that the resurgence of Shan Yu and the resurrection of Scar are both related," replied Cloud as he started to type on the computer of the ship to bring up the images of the two and other images that had been taken from the gumi ship of a man with a white mullet and wearing a white coat over black clothes. "This man has always been where we are and it seems like he is targeting you for some strange reason, but it could be revenge since he was once a heartless until he managed to make himself back to what he was. Some of the people who have seen him say that he has the power to bring back those who serve darkness and is the reason for Maleficient's reappearance. We also have two others that you can see in the picture, one of them is a notorious mercenary who goes out to the highest bidder, but he used to be head of the guard squad in Hollow Bastion before it got turned into what it was when we were kids, well all those from Hollow Bastion. We all generally believe him to have been in league with the heartless or that he was paid to keep the gate open that he was supposed to guard."

The pictures went into a mug shot of the notorious, yet to be named mercenary, much to the annoyance of Sora who had been waiting to see the man they had been talking about. The man they saw was a bit of a looker with short blonde hair and a bit of unshaved fuzz under his chin that made him look a little laid back. The most distinguishing feature were his left eye and his lack of a right eye, the former being a very glowing red and the other being covered by a black eye patch that made him look sort of like a pirate. The black leather jacket with a black shirt and topped with black pants and boots said a dangerous man, which, Sora was certain of, he was. The next few pictures were of the mercenary performing missions with a rather sharp katana and saber that were cutting through things from other people, heartless, nobodies, and knights.

"He seems to have a lot of skill for a man who hasn't succeeded once," remarked Sora as he looked at Cloud and Leon and noticed that both of them had solemn looks as if lamenting for something.

"Sora, do you know where I got this scar came from," said Leon as he pointed to the scar across his face and Sora only nodded no. "The man who trained us both to fight was that man; I even hate to say his name right now."

"Bandit, Ban for short," piped up Yuffie as she also stared solemnly. The kunoichi was leaning back comfortably in her chair, hand on her chin as she appeared to think about something intently.

"He gave Leon that scar and he gave me a scar on my back," said Cloud before he pointed at the eye patch in the picture. "We both fought him and I gave him this while Leon cut him good on his back, but he still survived it enough to beat us and leave the world we were currently on. This was our second fight, the first one was a clear victory for him on Hollow Bastion, but he placed us on a transport out of Hollow Bastion with everyone else. I still don't know why he saved me."

* * *

At that moment, the infamous Ban was looking at the remnants of his gummi ship before starting to shoot of at the sky with a blind rage while his apprentice was wiping away the writing on the board and then started writing "stop" on the board with large red letters. After a few clips, ban threw the gun into the horizon and pulled out a gummi block that started to reshape the ship back to what it was before. He hated using these because if one person knew he had it they would be asking to borrow it and it would never end. The thing had been his for three easy payments of $19.95, but the fourth payment was a complicated one that was made in Wampon where the mail man was shot to death, the envelope wouldn't seal, and the stamp was in the wrong denomination.

Neko was watching the fascinating block go to work to remake the ship and couldn't wait until he gave her the spare gummi ship with her own repair block. The two had met on the streets of traverse town when ban was coming to check on his former students whom he claimed treated him like he was a father, but Neko could see a bit of pain in his eye as he said this and it slowly became clear to her how he lost his eye. It was Ban who had taught her how to use her own summoning powers to summon up dragons to fight with her and it was him who forged the Dagon sword, which held the summoning stone that belonged to her first summons and still held some of the power. Ban himself had discovered his affinity for ice to create two swords of ice in his hands, a power that had submerged itself until she showed up. It was only a bit of her own potential and he soon found that she could have as much potential in power as the keyblade wielder.

"You don't have to use that anymore, you can talk normally now," said Ban as he got on the ship and got into the pilot's seat of the gummi ship and then plotted a course. "We might have to accomplish some of his next task just to stay on his good side. We don't want to blow our cover."

"But we don't want to run into your old students as well," said Neko as she took the gunner's seat and found that there a certain look on his face of inner torment after she had said those words and realized that the reason he was so torn up over that was because he was being blamed for something. She lowered her head, an upset look on her face as she watched Ban quietly.

"What do you mean by that," asked Ban defensively before he felt her tapping on his eye patch.

"Where exactly did you get this, Ban," asked Neko as she took her hand off of the eye patch and sat back down in her seat to wait for him to answer her with the truth.

"As you may have guessed by now, my relationship with my former students is less than stellar," said Ban calmly as he didn't bother to turn back and look at her, he just looked on into the infinity of space. "It all roots from my original failure to prevent the destruction of Hollow Bastion or the takeover I should say, since it wasn't really destroyed, just overrun by heartless. For right now I can't tell you why I failed because it would hurt so much to say it, but the point is I failed and they lost everything because of that, family and friends. It was only right that they should try to take revenge on me, which they did try to the day that Hollow Bastion fell with terrible success, but two years later they had improved enough to do this to me and the scar on my back. Right now I doubt I could even beat them, but I could still manage to do a good bit of damage to them if a fight ever came on. It's not that I don't believe I deserve to die for my failure, it's that I made a promise that I would live on to find someone and that is why I took this job, because the pay for doing what me doing this is to find that someone. That is all I'll say for now, but I will eventually tell you everything about those events that made me the mercenary I am today."

"I hate to wait," pouted Neko as she sat back in her seat, but she didn't think to lock the seat, which doubled as her bed while Ban took his usual place hanging upside down on the ceiling. "But I guess I have to since you won't give me anything if I force you. So what task do we have to accomplish next or 'try' to accomplish."

"He just sent me the message that they are heading for Port Royal and we are to hand information to a certain individual," said Ban as he switched the ship into gear and then looked at the mission file. "All we're doing is delivering the gold to someone so it seems like we can't do anything to sabotage it other than make the gold pieces go missing, but such a move would only serve to blow our cover and I did not take this job to screw it up. We'll deliver the gold and then I'll wait for further instructions while you find a way to get information on Legat to the keyblade wielder."

"Yeah it would be bad for them to have to find out about our operation so early," said Neko as she picked up her sword where her white dragon and black dragon summons resided in sleep. She rubbed it proudly, swinging it around a good couple of times until Ban snatched it up before it cut him. He held it up, she grabbed for it, and it ended up hitting her head as the gummi ship launched off the ground.

"You'll put your eye or my last eye out," said Ban as he led the gummi ship to it's course.

* * *

"You know I wonder why he failed all those times," said Yuffie aloud as she rocked into her seat and talked to Riku. She had decided not to assume the worse of him since he had been the one to save her from a score of heartless the day Hollow Bastion fell and she remembered that he had a lamenting look on his face, as if he were regretting not coming sooner or something. It was when she saw the city being overrun by heartless that she figured out what he was lamenting and when she saw him at the transport she asked him about the city. He just told her to take the ship off their world and to make sure that she got the others to safety. The only other conscious people on the ship were Tifa, Aerith and Cid who was at the controls despite the menacing glare that he was giving Ban at the moment.

"Maybe he wants us to know and next time will get it right so that we can face him," replied Cloud without bothering to look up from over the catalogue he was looking at for gift ideas. Cloud was well educated in everything social, despite his lack of showing it, in everything but gift giving. "Either way you want to look at it, he was still responsible for the fall of Hollow Bastion and afterwards worked for the heartless who destroyed our homes so we know where he stands. The next time we see that traitor we'll bring him to justice, you can count on that and we won't let him get away either. The last time we fought him he barely managed to beat us so we should have surpassed him right now."

"Fine, but you can count me out," replied Yuffie as she sat back in her seat and continued to talk to Riku, but Cloud's eyes immediately picked up interest into the other keyblade wielder who had found something.

"Hey, what's this," asked Sora as he picked up a silver coin that had the image of a wolf on one side and on the other side of it had the coat of arms that was on the old Hollow Bastion flag. Without thinking, the young keyblade wielder flipped it into the air and both Cloud and Leon were taken into a flashback of another, older, but still young man flipping the same coin with a saber in the other hand.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Pirate that stole Christmas

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts. By the way this begins with a flashback.

**

* * *

Flashback Begins**

The silver coin spun in the air and fell a few inches down until it was at level with the young blonde's chest when he promptly shot his hand out to catch it before it went any further. The two looked at it a bit amazed at the speed and a bit unimpressed by the fact that it was a simple coin toss, something that anyone could learn, not the hard stuff that they had been taught before. Their teacher was a mysterious man dressed in black whose wife often made bread for the two boys and their friends when they ran over. Both counted on her to be the shield that took the blunt of the damage when their teacher, Ban, was being hard on them since she could always make him softer for some reason, but they wouldn't do it too much because they wanted to become tough, just like him. Today, however, he seemed to be going soft on them, not being real strict on their exercises and now doing the simple coin tricks.

"Come on pops, those coin tosses are so simple that anyone could get them," complained Leon as he looked at the man who was teaching him and the other kid whom he befriended while training alongside him, Cloud. Never know if he'll start to storm or if he'll keep it cool.

"Leon has a point there, you said we were learning something fundamental," replied Cloud as he looked at the coin that was being tossed up and then noted how there was a slight shift in Ban's eyebrows. It was thought that almost nothing could get past Cloud's, ironically enough, sky blue eyes.

"Don't call me pops, I'm not that old pint size and I'm not your father," said Ban as he tossed the coin up in the air again, this time he flung it up in the air farther than either boy could see and then caught it at its same distance. "I'd never have a son as disappointing as you that's for sure. The coin toss is a demonstration of hand eye coordination and now it will be a measure of when you two will surpass me. If either of you can take this coin form my hand then you will have surpassed me, you both got that?"

"Yes sir," snapped the two as they both went for the coin, but both hands were knocked away by Ban's saber and it was clear that they would only be taking that coin from his hands by force. They tried again, coming up faster at the same time. Unfortunately, they were caught and both boys' hard-as-rock heads were slammed against each other. After being thrown to the side, Leon hopped up with a slightly shaky vision. He signaled to Cloud who nodded in understanding. The pupils separated, drawing their swords as they approached Ban from almost opposite sides.

Cloud came in low with his own short sword that was one sided and had a wide blade for hacking power while Leon cut vertically with his long sword. Ban parried Leon's attack while jumping off of Cloud's blade and kicking Leon in the face, sending the boy back into a trash can. Cloud charged in to avenge his friend, but was smacked on the back of the head by Ban's saber and as he grasped the back of his head in pain, Ban had kicked the ground out from under him. At this time Leon had gotten back onto his feet and was now coming fast with a series of quick cuts, all of which were deflected and then Ban had thrown up a hand that had the coin in the palm. When Leon reached out to snatch it he felt the sensation of flat metal on his skull and his head started ringing out like a gong. The boys fell to the ground in a semi-conscious heap, their ears ringing as their sense started to shut down. The last thing they heard before passing out was a coin being flicked high into the air and almost out of sight...

**FLASHBACK ENDS**

"That's a memento of the man we have sworn to bring to justice," said Cloud as he looked back at the catalogue and then found something that he circled down with the magic marker that was sitting on the armrest of the seat. Sora held the gcoin in his gloved hand, watching Cloud curiously. He pocketed the gold coin, losing both men's attention completely. "When will we be getting to our next target, Cid?"

"Please don't say it like it like that, Cloud," said Tifa somewhat nervously. "You make it sound like we're invading the world or something like that when you refer to it as our 'target.'"

"Yes I suppose I do," said Cloud as he stroked his chin and thought about it while he began to notice that there was a hand on his shoulder, Tifa's hand. From a chair over by the window, for her access during flight, Yuffie stifled a laugh. She mumbled something about "I do" and "marriage" then giggled, scooting over closer to Cloud and Tifa. Demyx, the finally quiet nobody sitting behind the two with a cd player he got from God knows where, looked up at Yuffie as she moved, but turned his head just as she pointed at Cloud and Tiffa, annoying her slightly. She ventured a glance at Axel, only to see him sleeping with his arms crossed, head back, and drool gathering at the corner of his mouth. Yuffie sighed and turned back to Cloud, who was focusing abnormally hard on a certain item in the catalogue.

He might never have shown it, but he had feelings for the barmaid and he would always find himself becoming a bit nervous when she made such intimate personal contact with him. Normally he was a cool person with a lot of social grace, but right now he was a bit jittery and awkward while her hand rested on his shoulder. As soon as she took it off, he was his normal self. Unfortunately for Cloud, Yuffie noticed this movement and immediately placed Tifa's hand back on Cloud's shoulder to see if the gesture was the stimulus for Cloud's shaking. With a tiny whistle made to sound like a sigh, Yuffie managed to catch Demyx's attention. The rocker grinned slyly, throwing a piece of candy from his pocket at Axel and awakening him. Axel took one look, yawned, and then threw the same piece of candy at a random person up front to get their attention as well. Soon, everyone became aware to Cloud's strange uneasiness to Tifa's touch and Cloud was actually getting angry, not the supreme hate that he felt for Sephiroth, but the urge to hurt Yuffie the next time she put Tifa's hand on him.

"Would you cut that out," asked Cloud, raising his voice more than usual as he gave Yuffie a very nasty look with his eyes and a scowl plastered on his face. Yuffie immediately dropped Tifa's hand but it landed in his lap on top of a very vital part of his anatomy, causing Cloud to shiver and Tifa to remove her hand.

"Why do you have to keep acting like a child?" Cloud yelled. He glared, hands gripping the arm rest as though his life depended on it. Yuffie's eyes widened, the sound of a tiny gasp coming from her mouth like the air was plucked from her lungs.

"Okay we have landed in Port Royal so it's okay if anybody wants to come out," announced Cid over the intercom even though he could have just turned around and told them that without having to talk into the microphone.

As soon as he said that there was a black streak made right to the door and everyone was just left dumbstruck by the object that had been moving too fast for anyone who was looking to get a clear image. Really, only Donald and Goofy had been looking and they took only a by chance glance at the door and saw the object flying out. The other's just followed the gaze to the door and saw that someone had jumped out of it and was now running directly to a small ship with a bit of the crew, giving them money to take her wherever. No one could make out who it was that was running for the longest, but then they noticed the small black hair with a small black shorts that didn't go with the sweater that the girl, for the legs were too slim and clean shaven to be a boy's.

"Yuffie wait up," shouted Riku as he ran out of the gummy ship, leaving all the others behind him as he made his way there to the ship, knocking the man and a decent portion of the crew off the dock while running on the ship. He didn't know why he was chasing her, but something inside of him just told him to go chasing after her, something he couldn't explain at the moment, it was just the most natural thing for him at the moment.

"Why does that stupid chocobo head have to call me a child," asked Yuffie as she sobbed in the corner of the ship, not noticing the looks and cat calls she was receiving from the sailor's on board. "I'm twenty-one damn it, that's old enough to live under my own roof, but of course I spent all my time in the restoration of Hollow Bastion that I don't have enough munny to live on my own. I could buy beer for Christ's sakes and he has the nerve to call me childish."

The click of footsteps interrupted Yuffie's sniffles, but she didn't bother to look back. Wiping her eyes, she noticed in the reflection of some object nearby, a white head with bright clothes. All was familiar to her, but she still didn't care. At the moment anyways.

"Cloud was just being angry, it's not like he actually meant to say those things to you," assured Riku as he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and they didn't notice that the ship was casting off. "You know, you do act a bit immature like Sora sometimes, like the pranks you two play on each other, but in a way that makes you look very cute sometimes."

Yuffie smiled as she looked up, sniffling a bit, and Riku could only think about how cute she looked that. The two started a conversation comparing each other's likes and dislikes, finding they had a great deal in common with each other than they had thought before. Some would find it heartwarming how so absorbed they were in their conversation and others would wonder how that could be when a pirate ship was attacking their ship while they were talking to each other. Riku didn't notice the musket ball that flew over his head and Yuffie didn't notice the cannon ball that was flying over her own head, nor did they notice the bloody combat that was happening around them. Yuffie did however notice how it was a bit hard to hear Riku because of the loud noises that were going around until finally she decided she had had enough of it.

"Could you keep the noise down to a dull roar," shouted Yuffie who then noticed the change in scenery around her as the original crew was either dead, wounded, bleeding, still fighting, or balled up in the corners crying. "Okay I think we might be in trouble Riku."

The two ran to a life boat and broke off from the ship only to be run into another pirate ship along the way with an even more ominous crew that looked like hell had spat them back up. The captain of the ship wore a big admiral hat with a feather in it for a style with two pistols in his coat and a cutlass at his side. Surrounding him was a company of other men armed to the yellow-blackish tooth with guns and swords, all looking like monsters of the sea just arrived.

"I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but I think we're in deep shit now," said Yuffie as she stared at the pirate captain.

"Even deeper shit than you think," said the captain with a raspy voice before he turned to another man dressed in a black eloquent satin coat over a black vest and dress shirt, topped with black trousers and black boots. "Isn't that right, Mr. Bandit?"

* * *

Sora paced around the room quietly. He had forgotten when they had gotten to the ship cabin they were in, but he really didn't care. His best friend was missing. That's all that mattered. Sora looked up at the man standing by the table. He had a long beard with beads and many various things on him. He spoke in a rather sarcastic tone to Leon and Cloud, the two that where interrogating him.

"Well yes I did raid that ship, but I don't quite remember taking prisoners of that description or name," said Jack Sparrow, _oh excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow_, the famous/infamous captain of the pirate ship The Black Pearl.

"But that's the ship that they set sail on," protested Sora as he slammed his hands down on the table. "You must have noticed that they were on board, there is no explanation since the ship made no stop whatsoever and they are not back at Port Royal."

"Look, I have heard that there were two people matching the descriptions recently capture by the Dauntez that was not that far," said Will Turner, one of the people the crew of the Highwind had come to retrieve. "All we need is your help in telling us what you know about them, you don't even have to take us to the ship or help in the fight."

"No I will help since that ship has been attacking all ships and confrontation between the Dauntez and the Pearl is inevitable," replied Jack as he took another swallow of his favorite drink, rum. "The captain of the ship was once a very respectable man of the English Navy until he seemed to run into a mixed fortune of cursed Aztec gold. It seems it was delivered to him as a gift by some strange man dressed in black named…Sandlot, Sandpit, Landpit, Cranbrit, Madrid, Mandrake, Madrake, Make, Mark, Mugen..."

"Bandit," asked Cloud and Leon at the same time, causing everyone but Jack to look at them.

"Yes, that's the name," said Jack as he snapped his finger at them. "That man is supposedly helping move the curse across the men of his ship, each one having given blood except Bandit and the captain of the Dauntez, Thomas Ashcroft."

"Do you mind taking us to the ship," asked Leon as he put his hand on his gunblade, just in case he ever needed to use it.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I can do that," replied Sparrow as he took a step back.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Forgotten Chapter!

Disclaimer: Ello ther folks. Neko here reporting from...well...here..Anyway, sorry for the delay but I got caught up and well...forgot...send me blessings for Shenlong not to kill me oh and we do not own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or any other interesting thing on television. But we own our OCs. Sayo!

* * *

"Uhn.." The tiny, muffled groan of an injured kunoichi lying helplessly bound in a prison cell upon a docked ship with its captain and henchmen striding along on the deck above. She opened her eyes, slowly regaining the consciousness she lost hours ago. It had been a tiresome fight for her. Both the kunoichi and her close friend, Riku, had fought with everything they had against the ship crew coming after them, but in the end they were brought to defeat by the captain's main henchman. Their unconscious state had saved them from death for some of the more "slower" members of the crew just decided they were simply dead.

"R-Riku?" Yuffie whispered into the darkness of the cold cell. She yearned dearly to hear his voice, maybe even see his reassuring face. But Riku didn't reply, nor could he be picked out from the shadows along the wall. With a sad whimper, the girl closed her eyes and rested her pounding head on the floor. In a matter of minutes, she was asleep again.

* * *

"I'm sure your friends are alright mate," said Captain Jack as he stood at the wheel of the ship as he looked at his compass and turned to adjust the angle that they were going at so he could catch him just right. "I doubt that he'll hurt your friends or that Bandit would let him harm your friends because then it would diminish the ransom money."

"What do you mean ransom money," asked Sora, a bit angered by the thought of his friends being amounted to simple petty cash as if they were objects on some shopping aisle.

"A pirate always ransoms those he kidnaps or else he won't make any money off of capturing them," replied Captain Jack Sparrow without any signs or hints of being disturbed by the manner in which people were being treated, it was his way of business after all, to steal from people. "You'll find that lots of people do such a thing, like the slave traders in Africa and other places. Don't take it personally."

"I'm sorry but I do take it personally, damn it! I can't just leave them there to be bargaining chips!"

"You should calm yourself and look to the bright sunny day that we'll be having tomorrow," said the infamous or famous, depending on your ethnicity, profession and morals, pirate and just as he said that, rain drops started falling on them like machine gun fire. "Okay so I guess you can enjoy the rainy weather, but at least it's not storming."

"You shouldn't say things like that, you'll be tempting fate," said Sora and sure enough lightning crashed down from the sky at them, waking up Demyx with a girlish shriek.

"Could you stop making lightning noises, you're scaring Demyx," shouted Axel angrily as he tried to sleep in his makeshift bed.

"That wasn't our lightning spell that made the lightning noise it was the damn lightning that made the lightning noise," retorted Sora as he leaned out of the door way down the hallway causing him to come under fire by multiple thrown objects from the other tired passengers.

"It be a dangerous thing to go shouting in the middle of the night on board a pirate ship unless you're the captain," said Jack as he walked down the hall and was nearly hit by a bottle of rum that he caught in his hands. "Of course if you're a captain then you get free rum out of it so it's all good, but if you're not, well I hope you can duck as good as you can wake people."

"Why is it that I'm stuck trying to find my friends out on the open seas when Christmas is coming up," asked Sora to no one in particular, he just felt like complaining over his cruel fate. "The only thing that could get worse is the storm."

"We're already in a storm and the Pearl is being thrashed around," called Mr. Gibbs from on deck. "We need help to contain the water and keep the ship afloat."

"Come on men, all hands on deck before you find yourself below the sea," said Jack as he rushed out and started steering the ship on course while following his compass. "Come on men, secure the left tackling line, Sora."

Men rushed about to each bit of the dock and tried to secure every sail and rope, but the sea seemed determined to swallow them all whole in its watery embrace. Sora never gave up trying though and his courage and determination seemed to spark the others to do so, even Cloud and Leon were encouraged to do so and they both wound up keeping the ship on its right course and prevented it from turning over. When they had finally gotten a good place to rest, the crew stood at ease and gazed at the raging storm that they had just come out of. It looked like some dark presence passing over them and they were soon looking at the full moon peering over the clouds and smiling on them like a lady of fortune. Just for a moment, Sora could forget his troubles and think only about the person who was outlined in the presence of the moon.

"Ship dead ahead, sir," called the man on the lookout who had braved the top of that point even though he could have been thrown off it at any time. "There appears to be a large ship dead ahead in our path with the only three men on duty."

"What is the name of the boat, sailor," asked Jack as he shouted up to his look out and the lookout took a second to look at it.

"It's the Dauntez, Captain," shouted the look out.

"Good now get down here, we're preparing for battle," said Jack as he walked down the stairs on the deck and started to make sure that each man had the cannons ready for battle.

* * *

Yuffie awoke to the thunderous blares of canons and the soft, gentle whisper of her name. Eyes slow to open, it took her awhile before she realized

Riku was crouched next to her pained body, his bulky hand lightly rocking her shoulder. A strong surge of overwhelming joy rushed into her heart the moment she saw the snow-haired boy.

"R-Riku.." She mumbled. Riku smiled, nodding in response as a canon ball slammed into their captor's ship and rocked it roughly. Riku lurched forward from the force, catching himself before he fell onto the already pained girl.

"What's going on?" asked Yuffie. She lifted her head slowly and tried to pull herself into a sitting position, getting some help from Riku after a few minutes.

"I don't know, but I don't like the sounds of it so far." Riku answered. Another boom from the canon followed the cracking of wood upon the deck. The two teens scooted to the far left of the cell, dead silent.

Suddenly, footsteps tromped down the hallway the cells were on. Louder thumps countered it, then the crack of a one shot gun whizzed by their cage. It broke through the wall of the ship, leaving a small hole of impact where the musket ball tore through the wood and hit one of the men inside who was too drunk to know what was going on.

From the side Riku and Yuffie were hidden against, a girl, long-haired and wielding a long sword in her hand, dashed across the railings on the cell opposite of Riku and Yuffie's. Seconds later, blood splattered on the silver metal keeping the two captives in the cold semi-room. The girl dashed back to the left side, her sword bright red and leaving a blood trail behind. She disappeared from view, but her breathing could still be heard from close by.

"I got the letter a few minutes ago..." She declared proudly. At first, she seemed crazy until they heard the second footsteps of shoes stepping down the hall. With a startled jolt, Riku recognized the steps to be none other than the clicks of Bandit's boots. No sooner later, the blonde man walked past into view. He didn't seem to notice the two in the cell, and they made sure they held there breathe, whether it be via their control or shock.

"Which one?" The man asked in a low yet audible tone of voice. He stopped next to the right end cell's rails, seemingly examining the bloody ground.

"The one Legat sent us. The ...memo? Bleh, whatever. The one that tells us what we're supposed to do next since his lazy ass can't get up and tell us, " the girl answered, her voice very loud.

"Oh, yes, you mean that one that one. That is a very important document dealing with all the jobs he will be having us do for some time and a proper reference for sabotage. Why the hell did that idiot send a letter when we're under attack?"

"I don't know. Hm...I wonder why he wants Sora so bad. Why would he go after someone continuously? Especially after everything that happened, all the failed plans..."

Riku's eyes shot open the moment the girl mentioned his best friend's name. He came extremely close to gasping, but thankfully kept his calm and pricked his ears to listen intently. By the time the girl finished speaking, the boy's ear was pressed strongly against the cold wall.

"Apparently it was something very special. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so intent on stopping on nothing to get that boy." Ban replied without a glance back. Everything fell silent again, almost the burning type that begged to be broken.

At last, the girl broke it with a chuckle and the sound of ruffling, no doubt her fumbling through her pockets. "You got a postcard as well."

The girl laughed, pulling out a card and sending it spinning towards Ban. He reached back and caught it without turning around.

"I see," was all he said before he disappeared and everything ran into silence for the millionth time, all except for the voices in Riku's head constantly pestering him about Sora and this Legat fellow..


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Pirate Fighting 

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or characters. 

Sora: Isn't it the middle of March. 

Neko:duck tapes mouth shut Now please enjoy the long awaited chapter.

* * *

Ban walked up onto the ship with his saber out and ready for the first pirate who attacked him as he made his way for the place where the treasure was. Of course most of the crew was undead so the worst bit was that some were having problems with missing body parts, but it was still not in the favor of the keyblade wielder. The only person who hadn't cut himself was Ban, who had volunteered to do so as a way of making sure that Ashcraft wouldn't have to worry about capture. Being able to exploit ones weakness was something that always made Ban smile, but he couldn't be a bad guy, it was those memories of his dead wife that would keep him from doing it. On the deck was a scene of chaos as men tried to run from the massive destruction that was being wrought on the Dauntez as he searched for her captain and found him in his room looking at the gold chest. The room was meant to be a hidden room, but the moonlight shined of the gold coins giving away the mystery of his hiding spot.

Greed was a funny thing that made a lot of men do funny things that were questionable, but Ban was uncaring of money. Posing as a mercenary helped him maintain the level of stature that he had with the world of darkness and it helped him as an inside agent sent in to sabotage organized crime. When the planet was consumed by darkness, Ban was left somewhere floating out in the space before he was found by King Mickey, who decided to use him as an informant against Maleficient. He had kept his cover for so long and it was simple when all he had to do was take the blame for something that he didn't do. Something that wasn't his fault, but he could do it so easily because he felt it was his fault that Hollow Bastion fell. During the time of its invasion, Ban was treating his wife who was sick of a disease 

and it led to a depression that caused him to neglect his duties and without his command on the gates, Hollow Bastion fell. 

"Don't worry gold, I won't let anyone take us away," said Ashcraft as he looked at the gold, not even noticing Ban approaching him with a bloody coin. 

"I'm sure you can follow to the bottom of the sea," said Ban as he threw the coin back into the chest and stabbed Ashcroft in the chest before he could call out for help. As he walked off he saw that there was a boarding party on the ship and decided it was his time to leave. 

"Going somewhere," asked Leon as he pointed his gunblade at Ban who then turned to Cloud who was behind him. 

"You aren't getting away from us this time," said Cloud and he crouched into his sword stance. 

"I see, well I guess I'll have to try and live a little longer," said Ban as he created twin ice swords in his hand and waited for one of them to make their move. They both attacked at the same time, slashing at Ban with such ferocity that the ice swords almost shattered, but ban was able to hold them off until he could start to cut around with his sword, slashing at both of them with perfect synchronization. For his old age he was very quick to fight and with each lunge and parry he was proving that he truly did deserve to be the second greatest mercenary. The only problem was Cloud was the best mercenary and Leon was the best knight of Hollow Bastion so that it was already in their favor, Ban was just doing everything he could to keep them away. Finally, after it seemed like they were gaining an advantage Ban spewed ice out of his mouth that froze their ankles giving him time to jump away onto the deck, but he underestimated Leon's ability to shoot. 

"You're not getting away, you bastard," shouted Leon as he fired the weapon and it hit Ban in his lower stomach causing him to spit out blood as he hit the deck of the ship and then got up to start limping away. "Going to freaking kill you asshole!" 

"You can try, but I think you should be more worried with helping Sora right now," said Ban as he started to move towards the lower decks and the prisoner holding cells where his protégé was. 

* * *

Down in the cell room, Neko's only sign of life was her occasional blinking as she gazed at the ceiling. She had heard it; she knew she had. Ban was fighting above, quite obvious since the cells were directly under them and the three men's voices were much too loud to mistake. Normally, she would be watching from a safer distance out of curiosity, but today was different. When it all started, she was snoozing in a nearby barrel, so as not to be found by any enemies since she actually did not enjoy anything dealing with zombies even if it was a fight, until someone ran by bellowing at the top of its lungs about the death of Ashcraft. The barrel was knocked over just as they raced by, sending Neko rolling down the hall to crash into a wall.

The zombies of course thought she was a threat and pursued, thus leading to a near heart attack for Neko until a loud crack and thud hit right above them. Judging by the area of the sound and where the other two enemies were, it was no doubt Ban that had fallen. The zombies retreated out of shock, but Neko could not move a muscle and had not moved a muscle since then.

"Is...is...is he...dd.." Neko stuttered, listening closely. 

"Dead?" Yuffie's voice echoed from her cell so suddenly and unsuspectingly it made Neko jump. The steel bars holding the two captive within the damp quarters seemed to have been mangled 

by the mouth of the mighty Fenrir from the way mysterious slashes embedded deep into them, apparently fresh.

"Decapitated?" added Riku in a lowered voice in the corner of the cell, hidden from view by the dancing shadows.

"Degraded in public?" a random voice came from down the hall.

"Yes to the first one." Neko answered, reaching back to confirm her sword was strapped safely in its case across her back. The girl crawled the rest of the way out of her demolished barrel, drawing her sword out for further use. Just as she started to walk towards the stairs, however, a roar of wood being forced apart by sheer power froze her in her steps. A good thing it was, for one of Ban's ice swords soared and engraved itself into the floor right where Neko was just about to step.

"...what the Oreo..." muttered the confused girl staring blankly at the icicle lined sword, then laughing at how close it had come. A shadow fell upon the wall connected with the exit. Ban appeared seconds later, bleeding pretty bad but not fatally from the lower abdomen. 

"Oh, HI! Care to join us?" Neko greeted jokingly at the wrong moment as always, "Care for a drink? The pesky colonists might've dropped all the good tea into the harbor all those years back and the rum here is rat's blood but there's always the poisonous sea water!"

"Pass me that sword." ordered Ban, completely ignoring what Neko just said. Raising an eyebrow, the girl jiggled the sword from its confinement between the splintered remains of floor. 

Foolishly forgetting about the spears of ice creating the sword, Neko flipped it in the air. The handle reached out to Ban's palm while the iced end pierced Neko's soft palm, dabbing it with little drops of blood.

"Draw out your sword and be prepared to fight." Ban mumbled, passing Neko quickly in spite of his wound. 

"It's already drawn out..." answered Neko, holding up the sword limply.

"Then be prepared.."

"To fight who?"

"You'll find out soon enough..."

"But why can't you tell me beforehand?"

"Because we would like to make our own introductions." One of the low voices from up above answered by the stairs. Neko turned on her feet slowly, only to jolt back the moment she saw the man's faces. She had heard them when they were fighting Ban, but she had not a clue who they were until they were staring her dead in the face, their mere presence sending fear down her spine.

"Cloud and Leon..." Neko whispered, sweat forming on her neck. She swerved around to face the man leaning against the wall, pressing clothe against his wound and grasping the ice sword tightly. "ARE YOU FRICKIN' KIDDING ME!"

"Cloud! Leon!" Yuffie called, scooting over to the rails. The two men's faces glared in anger and vengeance, not at Riku and Yuffie but directly at Ban. The shadows falling over their faces created a sense of danger in the air.

"So, I take it you're this man's pupil? Well then â€¦let's see which one of us learned most.." Leon stepped forward, the gunblade in his hand rising with the urge to fire. Cloud inclined his head slightly, his hand curled around his sword, just as ready as Leon.

"...oh ratatouille.." Neko mumbled, eyes wide in complete and utter fear.

* * *

Sora glided through the undead army like a tornado, attacking in all directions and hurling his enemies through every open space possible.

With every hurl and swipe of the keyblade, more and more monsters appeared in their place. Granted, most of the monsters that came where the same ones thrown the minute before, some just plain body parts working on their own, or just both; none of them appeared to grow weary, quite opposite of the keyblade wielder whom was struggling now to aim a slash for a quarter of the crowd. Every muscle in his body screamed in pain, begging for the break that had the least bit probability of happening.

But Sora fought on, determined to get to his friend. Sweat began to fall, but his courage did not. Sora hacked his way through, slicing every body part there was, with full body or not.

Just when the odds seemed impossible for Sora, the crowd disbanded mysteriously. Confused yet relieved somewhat, Sora did not question the actions but ran forth instead. No zombies came out at him. No muskets shot his way. No nothing. Only a clear path for the rooms onboard.

"Oi, mate!" yelled a man from above, slowing Sora's pace. Captain Jack

Sparrow leaped from over the railing upon the cabins, landing precisely next to Sora with a bottle of rum in his hand.

"Snag this one here from one of the storages, he he," Jack explained on his own, holding the bottle up. "Now where are ye off to in such a hurry?"

"To help Riku, the thing we came here to do." Sora sternly replied, leaning forward in indication he wasn't planning to stay and talk any longer.

"Oh, right, matey. He'd be in the cells, that fellow." Jack unscrewed the cork of the rum, taking a sip from it then gagging and tossing it aside. "Aye, the rum here is rat's blood.."

"The cells? Where are those?" inquired Sora, his heart starting to beat faster as the heat of the battle rose. "Take me to them!"

"No thanks." Jack replied, waving his hand as though fanning the order away. He took a few steps forward, leaving Sora to glare after him with irritation. However, battle cries rang out along what seemed to be a glimpse of the horizon but it was actually some bald guy's head when a cannonball 

seared through the air. It came mere inches from Jack's face, how he missed it a baffling mystery for later investigation.

"On second thought, ..that might not be a bad idea, matey." Jack said, turning back and heading for the cabins, an annoyed Sora chasing after him.

* * *

Blood stained the concrete floor. It spread across the floor and hung on the walls like pesky spiders. With every swing of a blade, more blood combined with the mess, whether from a wound inflicted or from an already open cut.

As more and more blood left her body and her head felt light, Neko couldn't help but feel like a mouse between two cats. Her reflexes saved her head and arms numerous times, escaping the deadly blades with plenty of cuts. But as blood tributaries grew into rivers along her body, Neko's fear roared to unstable heights, even with the help Ban managed to add much to his pain.

"Hey!" cried Neko as Leon's gunblade swiped at her nose, thankfully unusable since anything shot would ricochet in the steelcaged room, as found out the first time. The duck was swift, but sadly not swift enough to dodge the second surprise swing of Cloud's sword to the back of her head. It miraculously missed decapitating her, but the sword did not miss the long brown hair hanging down at the moment. 

Neko's eyes widened as she felt her hair suddenly shorten on the back of her head. She froze, straightening up and touching the back of her head in amazement. Time stood still in the little moments 

of Neko's frozen state. A powerful blow to the front from the handle of Ban's gunblade unfroze time and rammed Neko back into the shadows of the cell hallway.

"Well, now. I see your days are numbered. I thought you taught better than that." Cloud taunted, stepping forward for Ban's way. The bleeding man budged not one muscle.

"Glad that's over with. Now, shall we resume our battle?" Leon asked, lifting his weapon high.

"HELL NO!" Neko roared from the shadows, leaping out into the light. Her hair was very short and spiky, perfect for the anger flashes dancing across her face. "THAT TOOK YEARS TO GROW OUT, YOU JERKS!"

Neko raised her sword high above her head with the luminous rays shining out in all directions. The domain dragons lying within the sphere engraved into the sword arose in a swirl of black and white. The rays streaking out of the sword's blade took form, two sharp streaks whipping out to entwine themselves around Neko's hands as the attack neared completion. Just as the sword began to gather energy hungrily from the blood and air, Cloud swung his sword powerfully at the cell his comrades were imprisoned. With an ear piercing screech, the bars stood no more, nor did the wall behind the cell as a cannonball blew half of it apart.

"DUAL DESTRUCTION!"

* * *

The cells appeared before Sora and Jack shortly after their run from the deck. But just as what happened back when Sora was younger and just discovering his powers, something separated him from reaching Riku. That something was a long crack, shining white and black with power radiating off it. 

"What the " Sora managed exactly a second before a teenage boy with snow white hair and a girl apparently with him slammed into his side. The force pushed Sora off his feet, in turn throwing him into Jack. With that, the group slid rapidly down the split ship, headed for the murky depths below.

A massive boom signaled the change of one half of the ship's shift in angle. It landed against the sinking shelf, working as a lever and sending the deck part where Sora was sliding towards upward. Just as the group nearly fell into the waters, they were catapulted. 

Through the air they flew, completing matrixes and summersaults left and right. The yells of the stranded pirates left aboard the destroyed wreck retreating onto some form of wood or floating surface reached high into the sky. But it all disappeared when water engulfed and dragged their worn out bodies lower and lower..

SUPA NOODLE! 3


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Deal Disclaimer: Neither I nor Neko own Kingdom Hearts. Axel: Looks like it'll be Christmas again before this story is finished. Neko: yeah yeah..my bad..

Bandit: It doesn't matter, this was meant to be a Christmas fic.

* * *

The group looked at the wreckage of the ship thatthey were on as they sunk slowly into the water, letting the cold salty tasteslip down their throats with each depth of despair that they passed. None ofthe them could move their bodies or even try to stop the water from claiming their livesand leaving their journey unfulfilled. Sora was just about to reach in theblackness when he noticed something pulling him up to the water, a gloved handthat was held back as he saw Cloud pulling him up to the surface of the water,setting him on one of the floating pieces of wreckage from the Dauntez. You'rea saint Cloud, thought Sora as he coughed up water on the piece of wood beforeRiku was set right beside him by Leon. But if you had been here a little bitearlier we might have been able to avoid having a fish swim down our throats.He looked at the two unconscious forms of a silver haired teen laying rightnext to a short black haired kunoichi dressed in black, both with peacefullooks on their face.

"Okay that should get them," said Cloud as he climbed onto another pieceof wreckage that was a bit larger. "Now the only question remains as to whereBan is, but I think he's probably gone by now."

"His apprentice is right over there. " said Leon as he pointed to anotherpiece of wreckage that was laying a drift with someone on it, a girl who waswith Bandit, his apprentice. The two swam over to the wreckage to seewhy she was there and they found her also unconscious but completely in safecondition as they both helped her up to the Black Pearl that was circlingaround them."I can't believe he would just leave her like that, and after he saved herlife as well, that man must be stopped if he's willing tohis."

"I don't think he just left her, her wounds seemed healed," said Aerith asshe checked the young girl to make sure she was okay and then noticed thatthere was a postcard in her hand with a familiar symbol on it."It's a letter from the king addressed to Bandit!"

"What that can't be possible, don't make jokes like that," said Leon as heturned to look at her with a bit of a glare, but he calmed himself when he saw how frightened she was.

"But this is the King's mark and the King's handwriting!" replied Aerithas she started to look at the simple message that was on the postcard."'Continue your shadowing of Legat and don't let any harm come to Sora.'"

"Why would the King be asking Ban?" asked Cloud as he took the note to lookat it and found that it said, disappointedly, nothing else to extend on thematter.

"The problem, or as far as I see it, mate, is that you're not asking the right person about it," said a voice from the wheel of the ship.

"Jack, you're alive!" asked Sora as he jumped up to see the infamous pirate smiling and drinking at the wheel. "I thought we'd lost you!"

"It's going to take a lot more than that to kill me," replied Jack as hestumbled across the bow from his half drunken manner. "Right now that is notthe issue, the issue at hand seems to be that there is more to this Sandlot fellow than meets the eye while we are in the possession of someonewho could tell us about him."

"Bandit!"cried the girl as she awoke with a jolt and then lay back again togo back to sleep before jolting up again as she realized where she was."Um...hello there I'm just going to go back to sleep now, I hope youdon't mind letting me off at the next stop. Oh wait! You're the people I was just fighting aren't you?"

"Yes and now you're going to tell us where Ban is, exactly where he is,"said Cloud as he rested his sword, tip first and blade pointed out, at her."If you lie I'll hurt you, if I even catch the hint that you'relying I'll hurt you, if you can't remember something, I will hurt you. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir, Rodger, crystal clear! "replied Neko, a bit frightened by thethreat of biggest sword she ever saw.

"Good because if you don't, I'll hurt you" said Cloud as he sat down on achair that was placed for him by one of the orderlies on the ship. "Now then,perhaps you can enlighten us on what happened to our acquaintance."

Flashback starts

Using the attack that she had unleashed took a lot out of her strength,which is why Ban had warned her about using Dual Destruction when she wasinjured because it would only worsen her condition. When she got angryit was the first thing that popped into her mind, much to the chagrin of Ban, but now it was the most serious time when she should not have done itbecause of how much blood she had lost. The small wounds had now been opened further and she was left open to so much blood pouring out of her, and the first thought on her mind was the realization that she was going to die from herwounds.Over her was Ban trying to cast a cura spell, but found that his mana was completely depleted of everything from his fighting and to create the ball ofice that had saved them both from plummeting into the water. He pulled out a small bottle of potion that he had always kept with him in case ofemergency, but it wasn't going to be enough, he needed a lot more of the stuff. Still, he poured it down her throat to ease the pain in her body from the exhaustion all the while cursing the fact that she had used that double-edged attack andshe could see that he was panicking for the first time since she had known him.

"Do you need some help?" said a voice from behind them and he turned to seeLegat standing there, smiling at him while holding out something in his hand,a letter, the king's letter. "It seems that you two have received some wounds from the very people who you were both hired to save, especially you're apprentice. Poor thing, it looks like she won't live to see the next day unless you do something, or rather unless I do something, but then again I fail to see how I profit from the situation so I suppose it becomes a mute point for the both of us. Of course you could always make a deal with me, you're freedom for her safety and health. What do you say? Become my servantfor the darkness and I'll cure her of everything."

"Ban...don't trust..him!" said Neko as she tried to stop him from going,but he just shook his head and put his shades back on.

"I'm sorry, Neko, but this is where we part for the time being, this little drama of life has more twists and turns to go," replied Ban as he got upfrom his crouch and walked over to Legat. "I accept, save her first and thenmy life is yours"

"Wonderful," said Legat as he cast cura on Neko, completely fixing all thebones and taking the strain from her body while closing up all of her wounds."Now then, come with me Ban, that heart of yours will be very valuable."

"Ban..!" Neko weakly called out, her voice cracked from exhaustion. Seconds later, she was unconscious, the footsteps of her mentor slowly fading as he followed the man into the distance.

Flashback Ends

The group listened as the girl came to a final stop in her story. The flashback touched Aerith and Tifa's hearts, even coming enough to take a stab at Yuffie's. Leon and Cloud were just as quiet as the others, but were more interested seeing as they knew the man. However, Cloud never once lifted his sword away from Neko, not even for the courtesy of the story. Cloud kept a glare firmly latched on the girl, giving off an uneasy feeling for her as she felt his hatred for Ban prick at the wounds on her body, mentally tearing them open once more. Suddenly, Cloud got up from his crisscross position, listing the swordcloser to its prey.

"A LIE!" He cried, swinging the sword severely close tothe girl's lower neck.

"Kyaah!" The girl squealed, scrambling backwards to escape Cloud's reach.

"Cloud, wait!" Sora leaped up, grabbing Cloud's sword hand and clinging onwith all his strength. "What if she is telling the truth?!"

"Sora, you can't trust every smile that you meet. " Cloud mumbled, teethgrinding slightly. "She speaks nothing of the true Ban. He's a traitor,nothing less of that."

"But maybe he changed!" Sora said, the girl nodding rapidly from a safedistance.

"Nobody truly changes in this world. It's only acts. And if you are foolish enough to trust them, you end up torn and shattered inside." Cloud replied,lifting his arm and Sora up high. The young boy struggled to pull it backdown, but Cloud proved much to strong for the likes.

"But we have to give them a chance! Think about it!" Sora yelled, swingingfrom the man's arm. Cloud simply stepped towards the girl without a thoughttowards the boy hanging. Neko's eyes widened in fear. She quickly tried toscoot back again, finding herself backed up in a corner with nowhere to go.

"Cloud!" Sora cried, reaching his feet out and dragging them along the boards, but his attempt was proven futile.

"Cloud!" Aerith echoed, clutching the man's other arm. Cloud froze, glancingat her from the corner of his eye. She held his glance with pleading puppy eyes, angling her head a certain way for a double effect. "Let's giver hera chance. She's obviously depressed right now."

Cloud turned away from Aerith, settling his eyes on the girl backed into the nearest corner. She was scratching at her palm, studying a closed wound until she noticed Cloud's stare and slumped her shoulders in a suspiciously quick helpless child pose.

I still don't trust her.." The man mumbled, lowering his arms and allowing Sora's feet to touch the ground again. He glanced back at Leon, but thebrunette was too concentrated with his thoughts to notice.

"You don't have to. We'll give her a chance. Right, Sora?" Aerith replied,cocking her head to look past Cloud. Sora nodded with his everlasting,determined smile.

"If that chance proves deadly, don't expect me to come running." finished Cloud. With that, he left for the ship cabins, ignoring anything andeverything, bringing a great deal of relief to Neko. Aerith sighed, shakingher head as she walked towards the girl.

"Don't worry. We'll help you find your sensei AND get our Christmas partyready in no time!" Aerith told the girl, the corners of her mouths curvingupward into a smile with a hint of sunshine on her cheeks. Neko grinned backwith redeemed hope filling her heart.

The ghastly chambers below the aged phantom ship reeked of death and sickness, the moans of its captives haunting the area in low pitches. Water trickled down the dull bricks although there as no water around. Sockets dangling from occasional ceiling tiles indicated he late presence of light now gone with the lives of numerous skeletons littering the jail cells.Ban treaded silently through. His dark sunglasses and expressionless face hid any possible sign of emotion. Legat followed at a safe distance behind,hands behind his back as he watched the blond man's every move carefully.A slight chuckle escaped from the white aired man's lips.

"You are indeed aspecial one, Bandit." He smirked with a hint of ill confidence. "But, sad tosay, your type of 'specialness' is none of my interest."

Ban blinked behind his glasses, unfazed. Legat chuckled once more, then all fell silent again. Before Ban knew it, Legat was driving a dark keyblade into the center of his being and then twisted it. "Which is why I must recreate your mind for my bidding."


End file.
